Faces
by Armbar Nation
Summary: It seems that things are going so well for Seth Rollins and Ronda Rousey, but their happiness is cut short when WWE is rocked by tragedy. How will the company attempt to recover and move on? Will Ronda's almost unparalleled popularity with the fans go to her head and have a negative effect on both her career and her private life? *Seth/Ronda story 3 of 11*
1. Chapter 1 - Prologue

_Author's note:_

 _There are original characters in this series which were created by my readers. I offered the chance to have a character feature in the story and selected the ones I liked the most from the submissions I received. I'll list the characters and their creators below so that everyone has the credit they deserve for creating them._

 _May Devany - created by Willow Edmond_

 _Anna Hollenbeck - created by Debwood-1999_

 _Alexis Styles - created by Shiki94_

 _Sarita Lopez - created by Chaka1967_

 _I thank all of the people named above for the use of their characters and the time they put into creating them._

* * *

 ** _PROLOGUE_**

Newly crowned WWE Divas Champion Ronda Rousey felt unable to separate herself from her title belt, even on a run to catering to get a coffee for herself her boyfriend, Seth Rollins. This was in part due to the fact that she had only won it a couple of hours earlier, but also because it was the culmination of more than two months of very hard work in training to become a part of the Divas division. The fact that she had been given the title on her debut was not a popular decision with many of the Divas in the locker room, but that was not something that bothered Ronda. She was the kind of person who did not give a damn what other people thought of her, and would tell them so if it became necessary. The male side of the roster of course did not have much of an issue with her incredible push, so when John Cena walked into catering just as she was about to walk out, she was greeted with a smile.

"Congratulations. It looks good on you," John said warmly, gesturing to the belt that Ronda had over her shoulder.

"Thanks, John," Ronda smiled, noticing that John did not have his own recently acquired United States title belt with him. "Don't you carry your belt everywhere?"

"I did the first few times I won one," John smiled. "You get used to it, to some extent at least. I bet Seth's carrying that WWE title belt around like it's a baby you guys have just had?"

Not only was Seth Rollins Ronda's boyfriend, he was also the new WWE Champion, having won the title the previous night at Wrestlemania by cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase. "Yeah, something like that," Ronda said. "Don't talk to me about kids, though; not my thing."

John seemed to find the comment a little strange, as if he thought that all women would have the desire to have children at some point. "Well, congrats again. You sure did a number on Nikki, she's got a real fat lip coming on already."

With that, John made to head into catering but Ronda spoke once more and stopped him. "I feel bad about that. She did tell me to hit her as hard as I could with that clothesline but even so..." Ronda's finishing move was the Clothesline from Hell, and she had almost knocked Nikki Bella out cold with it in the ring during their match earlier in the night.

"It's not hitting hard that's the problem," John advised. "Just lower it a bit. You shouldn't make contact with the face, it should be the upper chest."

Ronda nodded, thinking advice about botching moves was a bit rich coming from Cena. "I'll remember that. Thanks John, I'll let you get on."

They parted ways and Ronda headed back to the locker room that she shared with Seth. As she walked, she decided that she should go and check on Nikki before leaving the arena. They had spoken briefly after returning to the back after their match, but not since Nikki had been checked out by the doctor. Going to see her friend felt like the right thing to do to.

Nikki and Brie were the only two Divas who Ronda could call friends, as the three had shared a locker room during Ronda's time as a referee, which had been her job when she had joined WWE. Before heading to see the Bella twins, she stopped off at her own locker room to deliver Seth's coffee to him. "There you are, asshole," she smiled as she handed the plastic cup over to him. Somehow, asshole had managed to become an affectionate nickname.

"Thanks," Seth smiled. "I'm ready to leave when we've had these, if you are?"

"Yeah, I'm just going to go check on Nikki, then we can take off."

"Okay," Seth agreed, sipping his hot coffee.

Ronda headed off towards the locker room that Nikki and Brie shared, looking forward to getting back to the hotel and enjoying dinner with Seth in the restaurant there. The walk to the twin's locker room was not a long one, and she was half way there when a young guy wearing a black t-shirt with a WWE logo approached her, walking in the opposite direction. A crew member or something, she thought, not that she really paid much attention until the guy spoke to her.

"Hey, can you tell me where Daniel Bryan's locker room is?" the guy asked.

"Sure." Ronda stopped and pointed back in the direction she had came from. "Right along here. Four doors along on the left, I think. His name will be on the door."

"Thanks."

The guy walked off, so Ronda carried on towards the Bella's locker room. When she arrived, she knocked and walked in without waiting for a response, knowing that the twins would not mind her entering. In any event, she saw as she closed the door behind her that Nikki and Brie were almost ready to leave as they were just packing up the last of their things. "Hey Nikki, Brie," Ronda greeted them. "I just wanted to come and make sure you're okay, Nikki? Again, I know I hit you real hard, and I didn't mean to get you in the face."

Ronda could already see that John Cena had not been lying; the left side of Nikki's bottom lip was swelling up nicely, but the former champion smiled anyway. "I told you after the match, it's fine. I've been hit hard before, and I've hit people hard before. It happens. The title looks good on you," Nikki added.

"She's right," Brie agreed with a smile of her own, "You're going to make a great champion."

"Thanks, both of you," Ronda said. She wanted to say more, but she was not the kind of person who said the kind of thing that she wanted to say very often and she felt awkward. "Listen, you guys have always been good to me since I started here and I want to, uh, say that I appreciate it. I'm going to head off now, we're ready to leave."

"You got it," Nikki grinned, amused by Ronda's awkwardness, but trying not to let on too much.

Ronda left the locker room and closed the door. At that moment, she heard a loud bang from somewhere further down the hallway, followed quickly by another. Her eyes narrowed as she walked along the hallway, wondering if the sound could possibly have been what she thought it was. Surely not, she told herself, feeling panic trying to take hold of her.

She could see that John Cena was on his way back from catering, entering the opposite end of the hallway, walking towards her. John was much closer to the source of the sound, and she could see a look of concern on his face as he approached a locker room door on the left from her point of view. Everything began to go into slow motion for her. She knew what the sound had been, and she knew which locker room John had just opened the door to.

At the exact moment that she walked past her own locker room, Seth opened the door and stuck his head out. "What was that?" he asked Ronda, but she was unable to compel herself to answer him. She was also unable to stop herself walking towards the locker room further along the hallway as Cena reappeared, yelling for security. John saw her coming and moved closer to her, making sure to get between her and the open door, stopping her approaching it. "Daniel?" she asked quietly as her blood began to run cold, clearly asking if Daniel was okay. She could already see the answer in John's eyes as she asked the question.

"No," John almost whispered, shaking his head slightly. Ronda's coffee cup dropped from her hand and hit the floor, sending the hot liquid splashing up her leg, not that she even noticed. She knew exactly what had happened without asking John, or looking into the locker room for herself. The young guy she had spoken to only a minute before had shot and killed Daniel Bryan, and then done the same to himself.


	2. Chapter 2

**_Monday Night Raw 6th April 2015_**

There was usually a dark match, followed by a match which was taped for Superstars before Raw went live. That was not the case this week. This week, the only thing that would happen before Raw went live would be that everyone on the roster would walk out onto the stage in preparation to pay their respects to Daniel Bryan. It had been a week since one of the most popular superstars in WWE history had been shot and killed, murdered in fact, in his own locker room by a gunman who had then immediately taken his own life. The wrestling industry as a whole was still in a state of shock.

The Smackdown show which was supposed to have been held the day after Daniel's death had of course been cancelled and replaced with a tribute show which consisted of Daniel's greatest matches and most memorable moments in the ring. This show had started off with Hunter Helmsley in the ring, in the empty arena. He was out of character as Triple H and minus his supposed broken ankle, as that storyline had now been cancelled because he would need to be seen both to make this announcement and to join everyone else in paying their respects on Raw. Stephanie's supposed injury had also been scrapped as she would need to appear also. Storyline plans of course paled into insignificance in the face of something like Daniel's tragic death.

Vince McMahon had offered to make the public appearances and announcements himself, as he always had in the past, but Hunter had said that no, this was something that he could do and needed to do now that he was effectively running the company. His simple announcement to open Smackdown was to detail the changed plans for the show, and for the upcoming Raw, following the tragic death of Daniel Bryan. He went on to offer heartfelt sympathies to Brie Bella, Daniel's wife, as well as to the rest of Daniel's family and friends on behalf of himself, the McMahon family and WWE as a whole.

Ronda Rousey had stood arm in arm with her boyfriend Seth Rollins as they, along with everyone else, had listened to Hunter when he had addressed them backstage earlier on Monday afternoon regarding what would happen on the Raw show that night. There would be no storyline involvement on the show at all, instead attempts would be made to accommodate anyone who decided that they wanted to wrestle, whereas nothing would be held against those who chose not to, or did not feel able to. The people who had been closest to Daniel had also been given the opportunity to record some final words to or about Daniel, and these short segments would be played in between the matches. Devastating losses were sadly not that much of a rarity in WWE, and those who remembered back far enough could recall similar nights held in the memories of Owen Hart and Eddie Guerrero.

Seth had glanced over at Brie Bella, who had been standing beside her sister, and wondered how on Earth she was able to function at all. What that woman had gone through in the past week must have been worse than anything he could possibly imagine. He would not have wished that kind of heartbreak on his bitterest enemy, let alone someone as gentle and kind as Brie. Her husband had been murdered, and if that was not devastating enough, she was indirectly the reason for it.

Gavin Russell, the twenty year old kid, that was basically what he was at that age, had been completely, repulsively, obsessed with Brie. When the cops had identified him and investigated the house that he shared with his drug addict mother, they had found countless amounts of pictures of Brie, as well as any and every piece of merchandise that related to her in any way. They had also found love letters that Gavin had written to Brie. Lastly, there had also been a suicide note saying that Gavin had tried to live with the knowledge that Daniel Bryan was with 'his' woman for a year, and he could do so no longer. He claimed to have realised that there was no way that he and Brie would ever be together, so he had decided to kill himself, but that was not enough. No, Daniel was not going to live happily ever after with 'his' woman, so he also had to die also.

How Gavin had managed to get into the parking garage under the arena was enough of a mystery by itself, given that he was not a WWE employee. or even an employee of the company who owned the arena. The fact that he got there with a gun stuffed down the back of his pants was even more outrageous. Security at WWE events would be a lot tighter from this point forward, but of course that was after the horse had bolted and would not help Daniel Bryan or those he had left behind.

Gavin had walked calmly through the arena wearing his WWE T-shirt, had spoken very briefly to Ronda and had then walked right into Daniel's locker room. From Ronda's statement, the cops learned that there was a gap of at least a minute between when she spoke to Gavin and when she heard the shots being fired, but what had happened in that locker room for that minute no one knew, and now never would know.

WWE had arranged for counselling sessions for those who wanted to attend, and Ronda had been one of those who had accepted. Not only was she traumatised by what had happened, as everyone else was, she also felt guilty as she had told Gavin which locker room belonged to Daniel. True, Daniel's name had been on the door anyway, so it was hardly information that Gavin would have failed to obtain for himself moments after talking to her if she had not answered his question, but that did little to change the way she felt about it.

The counselling session that she had attended had helped a little with her sense of guilt, but what had really made the difference was when Brie had approached her and said, "Don't blame yourself for this, Ronda. You did nothing wrong. That bastard would have gotten to Daniel whether you had been in that hallway or not." With that, the two women who had been friends, and were now even closer friends, had held each other and cried uncontrollably. It was the only time that Ronda had seen Brie cry in the week since Daniel's death, but she knew that of course there had been many more tears shed when Brie had been somewhere private with Nikki or other family members.

It was an incredible and moving honor for Ronda that Brie had asked her to wrestle a tag team match as her partner on the tribute show, rather than asking Nikki to do it. Ronda guessed that this was a way for Brie to show that she had meant every word that she had said about not blaming Ronda at all, and wanting to preserve their friendship.

"I'm not going to get through this without crying," Ronda said quietly to Seth as they walked out onto the stage when the time came, hand in hand. Neither of them were carrying their title belts - that was not what this was about.

"I doubt any of us are. I'm not even going to try," Seth said, squeezing her hand. They were in the centre of the second row as the rest of the roster filed out around them. Brie and Nikki were directly in front of them with Stephanie and then Vince standing to the right side of Brie in that order. John Cena stood on the other side of Nikki. He had also been struggling a lot with dealing what had happened, due to the fact that he had been the one to walk into Daniel's locker room and discover the two bodies. Hunter stood in front of everyone else, at the top of the ramp, with a microphone in hand, ready to make another very difficult speech. Aside from the sadness of the event, there was also a clear sign here that this was Hunter's company to run now rather than Vince's, as the old man was taking a more distant role in the business aspect in the same way that he was on the stage right now.

There were a few uncomfortable moments of waiting before Raw actually went on the air. Ronda noticed how subdued the crowd were, not that it surprised her. Everyone was still in a state of shock. Looking around, she saw that almost everyone was already standing as they knew what was going to happen momentarily. The show had not even gone live yet, but in front of her she saw Nikki put an arm around her sister and she was left in no doubt that Brie was already close to crying, if not actually doing so.

When Raw went live, Triple H had centre stage with the rest of the roster assembled behind him. The noise from the crowd rose when they saw the scene appear on the big screen. "Daniel Bryan has passed away," Hunter began, choosing the most sensitive of words to describe what had actually happened. Everyone knew the truth anyway, so there was no point in using a word like murdered at a time like this. "Tonight will not be about storylines. Tonight will not be about championships. Tonight will not be about rivalries. Tonight will be about saying goodbye; saying goodbye to our colleague, to our friend, and in Brie's case, to her husband."

Brie was briefly shown on screen, remaining incredibly strong, biting her bottom lip to stop herself crying. Hunter continued, "At this time, I'd like to ask you all to please stand and remain silent as we toll the bell ten times as a mark of respect. A video presentation will then follow."

The bell began to toll a moment later, just as Triple H had described. Several different scenes were shown of fans crying in the stands. Next, it was the turn of the superstars. Vince and Stephanie were both shown, the former looking down at the stage and the latter with tears in her eyes. Next Daniel's former tag team partner Kane was shown, standing with his eyes closed and appearing to be saying a prayer or some private words to Daniel. Then the focus shifted to Seth and Ronda, who were both looking straight ahead and crying, Ronda more heavily than Seth.

Finally, as the bell tolled for the ninth time, Brie was shown again, now was sobbing uncontrollably. The bell tolled for the final time, but of course no one had been counting along so the silence hung in the air until the video presentation started a moment later. The three minute package covered Daniel's career highlights, especially his WWE Heavyweight Title victory at Wrestlemania Thirty. At that time there had been two belts for the WWE champion and the video ended with a picture of Daniel celebrating with both of them raised high in the air. His name was shown on the bottom of the picture, with the dates of his birth and death beneath it.

The coverage returned to live shots of the arena and the crowd cheered loudly as a further sign of respect before breaking out into a chant of "Daniel Bryan!" The thunderous chant continued as the crowd of superstars parted to allow Brie to walk through so that she would be the first to leave the stage, before they all slowly filed through after her.

* * *

One of the things that Hunter had hoped Ronda Rousey's presence in the Divas division would bring was the option to, at some point, have the main event of Raw be a Divas match. However, he could not have imagined that it would happen this soon, or in these circumstances. He obviously would not have wanted it to. Nonetheless, the main event this week was to feature Brie Bella, as a further sign of respect to Daniel. She had of course been given the option of not attending the event at all, but no, that was the opposite of what she wanted. What she wanted was to be out there in the ring, doing what both she and Daniel loved to do. This was Daniel's night, and she intended to entertain him as best she could. The hastily put together tag team match was going to be Brie and Ronda against Natalya and Naomi.

Brie was first to enter, and the warm, affectionate reaction she got from the crowd as her music played and she walked out onto the stage overwhelmed her. Seldom had she heard anything like it for anyone, let alone being on the receiving end herself. Walking down the ramp, she considered that if this was the reaction her introduction got, the ending of the match would certainly be something, just as she had envisioned it. Daniel would love it. She had made the request to Hunter, and of course he had granted it with hesitation. Everyone who had wrestled on the show had worn a specially designed black armband bearing the name Daniel Bryan on their left arm. After she entered the ring, Brie kissed her husbands name on the armband before saying a few private words to him.

Brie's music stopped, but the crowd cheered again moments later when Seth and Ronda's music played, along with a brand new entrance video for Ronda, rather than Seth's. She walked to the ring in similar black ring gear to that which she had worn the week before, with the Divas title over her right shoulder. It had been a night of so many emotions, but as she got into the ring, Ronda got her game face on. She owed it both to Brie for the honor of being a part of this, and to Daniel out of respect. The two women bumped fists as Ronda's music stopped.

The sacrificial lambs entered together, then Brie got out of the ring, allowing Ronda to start the match. Naomi started for the other team, and as the bell rang and the two women squared up to each other, everyone seemed to sense where this might be going, given the size difference. Taking Ronda by surprise, Naomi starting blazing away with right hands, forcing Ronda backwards into the ropes as the crowd booed the underhanded tactic. Naomi took hold of her arm and used it to whip her across the ring into the opposite ropes. As Ronda came off the ropes, Naomi caught her with a roundhouse kick that knocked her down. Pleased with how easy this seemed to be, Naomi paused to mouth off at the crowd, but this was a big mistake as it prevented her from noticing that behind her Ronda was already on her feet, seemingly unaffected by the kick that she had just received.

The noise rising in the crowd alerted Naomi that something might be wrong, so she turned around. When she saw Ronda standing there, she tried to take the champion by surprise again by running at her, but this time there was no such luck. Ronda ducked the attempted clothesline and before she even knew it, Naomi was in position to receive a German suplex. Ronda launched Naomi halfway across the ring, towards the corner that Natalya was in and she landed on the tops of her shoulders and the back of her head, ending up a crumpled mess on the canvas near to Natalya.

"I don't think Ronda's getting paid by the hour," Cole joked lamely.

Ronda stood in the centre of the ring, waiting for Natalya to be tagged in. The crowd began to chant "We want Brie!" but Ronda showed no willingness to tag her partner as yet. Naomi managed to stir enough to make a tag to Natalya, who was understandably cautious about coming into the ring. Having seen how Naomi had gone wrong moments before, she decided against starting out by throwing punches and instead locked up with Ronda in a test of strength. Natalya was a powerful woman, but she lost out to Ronda and was forced into a corner of the ring. The referee called for a clean break. Ronda obeyed, but as she did so, Natalya got her with a cynical kick to the knee.

The dirty move allowed Natalya to get the upper hand and mount some offence for a couple of minutes, but then she made the mistake of allowing Ronda to get to her feet. She tried to grab Ronda to perform a suplex on her, but Ronda broke out of the hold and as Naomi had before her, Natalya found herself on the receiving end of a devastating German suplex. The crowd cheered the impact of the move, which in truth was a little too great. Ronda was certainly working stiff in only her second match, as she still really knew no different.

Both Natalya and Ronda were down now, crawling towards their corners to tag out. The crowd began with Daniel's trademark "Yes!" chant at the prospect of Brie finally being introduced to the match. There was an eruption of noise as Brie got her tag and ran into the ring at the same time as Naomi got her tag. Brie began to mount some offence, with every move being cheered loudly until Natalya climbed back in the ring. She attempted to run at Brie, who had her back turned, but as if from nowhere, Ronda appeared and met the oncoming Canadian with a Clothesline from Hell that made a loud crack as it impacted with its target's upper chest.

Natalya was out of the match, lying flat on her back in the middle of the ring. Ronda picked her up and tossed her through the ropes. While this was happening, Brie had gotten in position to deliver what was now her new finishing move. Naomi struggled to her feet and turned to face Brie, who ran from the corner that she had been waiting in and hit the running knee which had won her late husband so many matches.

The crowd roared as they saw the move connect and recognised what it was. Brie hooked Naomi's leg and had already started to cry as the referee made the count, which was academic. As Ronda and Brie were announced as the winners, Ronda helped Brie up and the two women stood in the centre of the ring holding each other in a tight embrace. Brie was trying her best to stop crying, but she couldn't, especially when the crowd started the "Daniel Bryan!" chant again.

Michael Cole had been talking on commentary, but he announced, "I've got to stop, because I've got a lump in my throat."

* * *

The final act of the show fell to Seth, for the simple reason that he was the WWE champion. It could only be the champion who could do what was required. Because of how emotional the Divas match and it's aftermath had been moments before, there was a very unusual quality to the ovation that greeted him as his music played and he walked to the ring carrying his title belt in his right hand and something else in his left. What the second object was could not be made out clearly until he got into the ring.

Seth's music stopped and he laid out the object that had been in his left hand in the centre of the ring. It was a red Daniel Bryan t-shirt with the Yes! logo on the front of it. Next, Seth laid his WWE title belt below the t-shirt, where someone's waist would have been had there been someone wearing it. Seth stood and pounded his chest with his fist a couple of times right over his heart, before pointing to the heavens. With that, he left the ring, and the objects in it, to be the focus as the show ended, with Daniel's picture on the big screen in the background. Yet again the crowd thunderously chanted "Daniel Bryan!"

"Goodbye, Daniel," Cole croaked. "We miss you, and we'll never forget you."

"I love you, man," Booker T managed to add before the show went off the air.


	3. Chapter 3

Roman Reigns was not surprised to see Ronda, a woman he considered to be a sister by choice rather than just a friend, hard at work when he walked in the hotel's gym at his usual, almost ridiculously early time. Before Ronda had joined WWE and became Seth's girlfriend, Roman had always waited for Seth and Dean to get up before working out with them, but now that Ronda was around, he preferred to get his workout in early as she did, and they would often do so together.

Aside from Ronda, the gym looked to be empty. She had not noticed him enter, as she was busy beating the hell out of a punch bag. Roman stood and watched for a moment, grinning at how quickly she moved both her body and her fists and how hard she managed to hit the bag. His mind wandered back to an incident which had happened not long after she had joined WWE as a referee. Cody Rhodes had given her a hard time in the ring and then thrown some sexist abuse at her backstage. Roman was grinning because he was imagining what would have happened if the situation had gotten violent. Well, he and Seth would have stepped in to split it up, but if they had not, Ronda could have so easily taken Cody apart, Roman didn't doubt that for a second.

"Hey, sis," he greeted Ronda as he walked over to her.

"Hey," Ronda replied a little breathlessly as she stopped and turned to face him. They bumped fists as a further greeting. A fist bump was more Ronda's thing than a hug, unless it was with Seth, of course. She liked to be treated as one of the guys by Roman and Dean, and they both liked that about her.

"You okay?" Roman asked. "You were going at it pretty hard."

Ronda took a deep breath and let it out slowly before replying. "Why not me Roman, huh?"

"How's that?" Roman asked, confused.

"Why not me? That bastard who killed Daniel. Why didn't he shoot me? You can't tell me he only had two bullets. I stood there, looked him the eye and talked to him. Why didn't he shoot me?"

Roman could tell by her tone as much as the words she spoke that the fact that she had spoken to Gavin Russell, Daniel Bryan's killer, was tormenting her. He wanted to help, but he was not really sure what to say. Seth, Dean and now even Ronda looked at him like a big brother as much as they did a friend. It was something he felt immensely proud of, but it could also be tough at times like this. He knew from Ronda's past issues with a neck injury that she had a history of bottling up her emotions and letting them eat away at her. "He wasn't there for you," he replied after a brief hesitation. "You know what the cops found in his house; all that sick stuff about Brie. It wasn't about you, and you didn't do anything wrong. I understand why you're feeling the way you are, but you really shouldn't be. It was all about Brie and Daniel."

"So why Brie?" Ronda demanded. "Why not Nikki? Why didn't he show up and shoot John? Why not me? Why didn't he shoot Seth?" she asked, her voice breaking. "What if he wanted Seth instead? I could be where Brie is now."

Roman shook his head slightly. "There's no way I can answer that. That little bastard could have wanted to kill any one of us from Hunter or Steph down to Zack Ryder. Tearing yourself apart isn't going to bring Daniel back, as much as we all wish it could."

"I thought about quitting, you know," Ronda revealed. "I thought about telling Hunter that I changed my mind and I don't want to do this."

"No, don't start talking like that," Roman said, more firmly now. "You're going to be the best Diva in the history of this business, do you hear me? I might not have known you at the time, but we've talked about it. I know you went through a hell of a lot to get to this point. Now you're here, you will _not_ throw it away. Are we clear on that?"

"Yes," Ronda said, exactly the way she would have done after being chastised by a big brother, which was essentially what had just happened. "I said I thought about it, not that I was going to do it. Seeing how brave Brie was last night convinced me to go on. If she can, I certainly can. Are we going to work out or talk?"

"Work out," Roman smiled, taking the hint that Ronda wanted to drop the subject. That was often her way, he knew that by now. "We're going to go out and have a good time for a few hours after breakfast, all four of us."

"We are?" Ronda asked, walking over towards a treadmill.

"We are," Roman confirmed as he stepped onto the treadmill beside hers. "Two mile run, loser buys the breakfast," he challenged.

The challenge did what he had intended it to do, causing a grin to appear Ronda's face. "Please, you've got no chance," she told him.

* * *

Laughter from three people greeted Roman as he climbed awkwardly into his kart. Ordinarily, he might have been slightly irritated by it, but not today. Hearing his two brothers and sister laughing and seeing the smiles on their faces was what this was about, even if it was't really supposed to be at his expense. He knew that karting was something Seth and Dean loved to do as much as he did, and he had no doubts that Ronda would enjoy it too. She had certainly been keen to come along and join in when he had told her what he had planned.

"You can't even get in the fucking thing," Dean managed to say through his laughter.

"You're taller than me, dickhead," Roman pointed out, grinning.

"Taller maybe, but not as awkward."

"You do look like a prick, though," Seth said, laughing again, this time directing it at Dean, who was wearing red overalls whereas the other three were all wearing black ones.

"Fuck you," Dean said, shoving Seth playfully. "This is just so that you'll know who it is at the front."

"Either that, or so we know who it is we're lapping," Ronda giggled, drawing more laughter from Seth and Roman.

"We can all talk, girl," Dean grinned. He knew the perfect thing to say to get a reaction from Ronda. "Get your pretty little ass in your kart and let me show you how it's done." Even though he expected some kind of violent reaction from Ronda, he was still not quite able to dodge the kick that she aimed at him. It caught him a glancing blow in his left side. The smile on her face revealed that she was at least partially faking her anger. "Can't you control her?" Dean demanded of Seth, continuing with the banter.

"What do you think?" Seth grinned back, causing Ronda to laugh again.

"Come on," Roman urged, putting on his helmet. "Are we going to get on with this?" With that, the others headed for their karts, and in less than five minutes the race was underway.

Half an hour later, as Dean crossed the start line in the lead, a member of staff signaled to him and the others behind him that their time was up, and they had one more lap to go. All Dean had to do was stay in the lead for one lap and he would win. It was not going to be easy, as Roman and Seth were both hot on his tail. Ronda was trailing behind as she was not an experienced kart racer as the three men were, and she simply had not been able to keep up. If Seth had not been so competitive, he might have felt a little bad about that, but no, there was a race to be won, and he was damned if Dean was going to be the one to do it.

With only three turns to go, Seth made his move, launching his kart up the inside of Dean's as they both braked for a tight right turn. Dean saw the move coming a little too late, but had no intention of letting Seth steal the win from him at this late stage, so he turned in, closing the gap that Seth was intending to use. Both men's determination cost them as the two karts connected, sending Dean's spinning out sideways, crashing into the barrier on the outside of the corner.

"What the fuck?" Seth heard Dean yell at him as the collision also almost completely stopped his own kart, allowing Roman to cruise past both of them and into the lead with a little sarcastic wave.

Seth was laughing as he managed to get his kart going again. Even though Roman was already making the final turn and cruising to the victory, at least there would not be the unbearable thought of Dean winning to worry about. There would have been no hearing the last of it, at least until the next time they got the chance to have a race if that had happened. Seth crossed the line in second place and looked back to see where Dean was. His laughter got even louder when he saw his friend coming around the final turn a moment later, in last place. Ronda had also just managed to get past him.

Seth got out of his kart and hopped over the barrier at the side of the track to join Roman, who had already taken his helmet off. "Candy from a baby," Roman grinned.

"You know he's going to be crying," Seth laughed, taking his helmet off as they watched Dean get out of his kart.

"Crying?" Roman asked, also laughing. "He's going to kick your ass for that."

"He's got to catch me first," Seth pointed out.

"Bad luck, Dean, just too quick for you," they heard Ronda chirp as she took off her own helmet and got out of her kart.

"Rollins, get your ass over here," Dean demanded angrily as he leapt over the barrier, heading right for Seth and tossing his helmet aside.

Roman added fuel to the fire by chirping, "Last place? Really? Honestly, I thought you were better than that, bro."

"You turned in on me," Seth said to Dean as he approached, trying to keep a straight face.

"You're right," Dean nodded in agreement. "Totally, my bad." By that time he had almost reached Roman and Seth. His acting fooled no one, so when he launched himself at Seth, he failed to grab hold of him as Seth scooted away.

As Dean chased after Seth, who was pleading his innocence even as he ran towards the exit of the building, Ronda approached Roman, laughing almost hysterically. Roman put a brotherly arm around her shoulders. "I think they're unwinding," he grinned.

"You could say that," Ronda admitted as she watched Dean tackle Seth to the ground. They began rolling around, with Dean trying to get Seth into some kind of submission hold. She noticed some staff members heading over there, clearly thinking that the fight might be a real one. "Let's go break them up," she said.

Fifteen minutes later, they were all changed out of their overalls and sitting in the small cafeteria that was situated near to the entrance of the kart track. Roman sat in silence, watching the other three chatting away with smiles on their faces. He considered his morning's work to have been well done. Of course, none of them would forget Daniel Bryan, but they could at least make a start towards moving on from his death. There was another very busy and stressful week coming up, because after the Smackdown taping was finished that night, it was time for them all to fly out for WWE's tour of Europe, including a live Raw from London, England.

* * *

"What do you think?" Ronda asked Seth as she pulled on a black t-shirt bearing the design that she had requested Maggie to produce for her. She turned around so that he could see the back of it. Hunter had approved the design, and the shirt would be going on sale real soon, so Ronda had decided to debut it for her walk to the ring for her match on Raw, which was coming from the O2 Arena in London. On the front of the shirt was a slight adaptation of the first drawing that Maggie had sent to Ronda months before on Instagram. The first drawing had shown half of Ronda's face with an almost growling expression, with the other half depicted as that of a cat complete with sharp teeth and whiskers. This new design was very similar, but the half with the cat's face had been changed to that of a leopardess, which looked a lot more fearsome than the cat version.

"I like it. I like it a lot," Seth said, nodding as he looked up at her from his seated position on a steel chair. "The drawing is amazing. I knew Maggie would do a good job."

"She really did," Ronda said, walking over to the large mirror on the wall of their locker room and admiring herself in it.

"This is going to be some show," Seth said. "The crowds over here are always insane, and with what they've got lined up..."

"I know," Ronda agreed, thinking about her own storyline. "Three Divas debuting on the same night. They're really getting behind this 'give Divas a chance' thing."

"The fans are too," Seth said, thinking about some of the reactions that Ronda had gotten so far. "And you're okay with what you've got to do in the ring?" he asked as he stood and walked over to her, sliding his hands around her waist from behind. "With your neck, I mean," he added softly, almost directly into her ear.

"I've trained for this, I'm ready," Ronda insisted, but Seth had felt her take in a breath which was deeper than necessary, revealing that despite what she said, she was feeling nervous about taking her first big bump in a match.

"You're going to be fine," Seth said gently. "We did this so many times, and you've probably done it hundreds more since I stopped training you."

"You're right," Ronda said. "Listen, I've got to go film my segment with Nikki for the app. I'll see you later, huh?"

"You will. I love you," Seth said, turning her around and planting a kiss on her lips. He knew that Ronda felt awkward when not appearing confident, even around him, so she was now going to find an excuse to go elsewhere for a few minutes. He was used to it from her by now, and knew that there was no point in trying to get her to stay and talk to him about how she was feeling. She needed to get this first time behind her, then she would be fine, he didn't doubt that at all.

"Love you, too," Ronda said before tearing herself away from him and leaving the locker room. Every time she felt that nervousness inside of her, she hated both it and herself, as it made her remember how mentally weak she had been at one point in the not too distant past. She tried to put it out of her mind as she headed off to find Nikki Bella.

* * *

 _ **Monday Night Raw 13th April 2015**_

When Raw went live, Michael Cole opened the show by welcoming everyone to the show and to the sold out O2 Arena, before getting right down to business. "We're going to take you back to this past Thursday night following Smackdown, when the WWE Network broadcast an exclusive announcement from WWE's COO, Triple H."

Triple H was shown sitting at what appeared to be the head of a boardroom table. "Good evening," he began. "Following a board meeting today, I have the following announcement to make. Due to commitments here at the office, my wife and I will not be able to attend any live events for the foreseeable future. Therefore, in agreement with the board, I have decided to appoint a General Manager to take charge of Monday Night Raw with immediate effect. Kane will take charge of Smackdown in his role as Director of Operations. The new General Manager of Raw will have full rights and privileges to run things on Monday Nights as he sees fit. Allow me introduce him to you now."

The shot panned out to reveal the new General Manager, who was also sitting at the boardroom table on the right hand side, in the seat closest to that occupied by Triple H. They were the only two people in the room. "John Bradshaw Layfield," Triple H announced, not that it was necessary by that point. The two men shook hands and smiled at the camera as the short announcement ended.

Cole's voice came back as the shot returned to the O2 Arena crowd. "Byron Saxton is joining Booker T and I tonight, as JBL obviously isn't out here. Byron, what do you make of the surprise announcement, the appointment of JBL of all people as the General Manager of Raw?"

"You've known JBL a lot longer than I have Michael, but I have a bad feeling about this."

"You're not the only one," Booker agreed. As he was saying it, the music for the Bella twins had started to play, to a large ovation which was intended for Brie, for obvious reasons. The crowd had the wrong end of the stick, though, as it was Nikki who walked out onto the stage alone. The decision had already been made that Nikki and Brie would no longer accompany each other to the ring, as they were both going to be put into the Divas title picture. Giving Brie a push was the very least that WWE could do following what had happened with Daniel, and Nikki was already in the picture herself, having been the previous champion.

"Here we go," Cole announced. "We have the Divas title on the line. Earlier tonight on the WWE app, Nikki Bella asked for the rematch that she's entitled to, and Ronda Rousey accepted. Let's see if Nikki can put up a bit more of a fight this time around."

"I think Nikki might have taken Ronda lightly last time," Booker said. "I don't she'll be making that mistake again."

"I bet she'll be looking out for that clothesline, too," Saxton laughed.

By this point, Nikki was in the ring and her music had faded out. Rather than it happening immediately, the crowd were kept waiting for Ronda's entrance. It was a cheap tactic to get the crowd hyped up, but it worked. It didn't take long for a chant of "Ronda!" to break out. The moment that her music hit was timed perfectly to coincide with when the chant began to die down, and the crowd went wild.

Watching backstage in the production office, Hunter could not help himself smiling. He had known that Ronda would prove popular and would mean money, but even he had never imagined that she would get reactions like this, especially this quickly. With what they had planned for her creatively, it was only going to get better.

Ronda entered the ring and decided to go with something that Seth had suggested that she could do to get the fans more involved with her entrance. The first time she had wrestled Nikki, she had made an overly exaggerated show of loosening up her right shoulder, as if getting ready to deliver one of her devastating clotheslines. She had then thrown a practice clothesline and pointed at Nikki as if to say 'You're getting one of those real soon'.

Her music stopped and the crowd played right along as Ronda loosened up her shoulder, knowing what was coming and building up the noise accordingly. When she threw the practice clothesline, they all yelled "Boom!" as if she had actually connected with it. Nikki reacted to it and played along, looking at Ronda nervously as the champion pointed at her.

This match was not to be a thirty second crush as the first encounter between the two had been. Instead, it was a remarkably even contest for five minutes before Ronda got the signal from the referee that it was time to end. Ronda passed the instruction on to Nikki as she grabbed her and whipped her towards the ropes. Nikki came off the ropes and attempted a clothesline, but Ronda ducked it and grabbed Nikki from behind, the position from which she delivered her signature move. The crowd cheered loudly as Ronda delivered the German suplex, knowing that it meant that Nikki was almost done. Ronda got up quickly and stood in position behind Nikki, beginning to loosen her shoulder once more.

"Here we go, that clothesline's coming Nikki," Saxton warned.

Nikki staggered to her feet, but before she could turn around and take the impending clothesline from Ronda, a woman with predominantly dark hair, with some strands dyed dark blue appeared in the ring behind the champion. She was slightly shorter than Ronda at five feet five inches tall and unsurprisingly not as muscular.

"Wait," Cole yelled. "We've got a... Who the hell is that?"

Oblivious to the new presence in the ring, Ronda was taken by surprise as she was spun around by the new arrival, who proceeded to kick her in the stomach and deliver a Twist of Fate. The referee immediately called a disqualification and threw the match out.

"Wait, that's Alexis Styles," Saxton called out, recognising the invader as the camera was finally able to get a closer shot of her. She had hazel eyes and a piercing in her lower lip. There were also several other piercings in her ears. She was not unattractive by any means. The fans recognised the NXT star immediately. The live audience had initially booed the attack of their new favourite, but some now launched into a chant of "NXT!"

"What's she doing here?" Booker demanded. "This ain't NXT, this is Raw!"

As he was saying it, another woman, this one a blonde with long curly hair tied back in a ponytail, slid into the ring.

"What's going on here?" Cole demanded loudly and angrily. "That's Anna Hollenbeck now, another NXT Diva." Anna wasted no time in grabbing Nikki and delivering a Killswitch to her. Anna was a similar build to Alex and they were the same height. The two new arrivals shared a high five of celebration at taking both Ronda and Nikki down. Anna's bright blue eyes gleamed as she smiled with satisfaction at Alex.

The invasion and the two finishing moves had happened so quickly that it only became obvious at this point that both women were wearing identical attire: Black shorts and black muscle tees with a familiar gold logo on them. JBL.

"JBL?" Cole asked incredulously. "What the hell is this?"

The two women picked Nikki up and tossed her through the ropes to the floor before turning their attention to Ronda. The crowd booed loudly as they proceed to kick and stomp Ronda repeatedly, in a beat down that she was helpless to resist.

"Come on, this is ridiculous, stop that!" Booker yelled.

At that moment, JBL's theme music hit, the familiar sound of the Stock Exchange bell greeted with even more boos. A huge white limousine will bull horns on the front of it pulled slowly into the arena. When it came to a stop in the entrance way, the rear door opened and JBL emerged to even more boos. He stood holding the door open for someone else to exit.

"There's JBL, our new General Manager, and apparently the man who has a lot to answer for as far as this attack is concerned," Cole said. "It looks like he has someone else with him."

"Oh God," Saxton moaned as JBL's passenger exited the limo to possibly the loudest volley of boos heard so far. The woman who had just emerged was not only the most hated diva on NXT, but quite possibly the most hated star on NXT period. "I should have known she wouldn't be far away. It's Sarita Lopez."

Sarita walked determinedly to the ring, with JBL by her side. She was an exotic looking, dark skinned Latin woman with huge breasts that could not possibly be natural. She had black hair down to the middle of her back and dark brown eyes. She was also a tall woman at five feet eight inches. Her attire matched that of Anna and Alex, who were still beating Ronda down in the ring. Ronda was flat on her back near the centre of the ring, and Alex had just climbed to the top rope.

"You've done enough. Don't do it," Cole whined, as if Alex could hear him, and as if she might actually listen even if she could.

As Alex soared through the air in a perfect moonsault which connected flush with Ronda's stomach and chest, Sarita climbed into the ring. She started barking instructions at the other two women, who began to haul Ronda's limp form from the canvas.

"Lopez is directing traffic now. This is pathetic," Booker complained.

JBL had acquired a microphone from somewhere and had an announcement to make from his position at ringside. "Ladies and gentlemen, this next contest is for the WWE Divas Championship. Sarita Lopez will be the challenger. Referee, ring the bell."

"What?" Cole screeched. "Come on! This is not right!"

Anna and Alex had hauled Ronda to her knees, but now they bailed from the ring as the referee, who had no choice, reluctantly ordered the bell to be rung. The crowd continued to boo at the farce that was taking place in the ring. Sarita grabbed Ronda and hoisted her high in the air above her head before driving her back down to the mat with a sit down powerbomb, delivering the move so hard that Ronda actually bounced back up slightly to accompany the huge bang that the impact made.

Cole called the action as if he was actually protesting against the unfairness of it. "Lopez got a sit down powerbomb on Rousey, who couldn't even stand to start with."

When Sarita made the cover, the crowd were so appalled that no one joined in with the count, which was of course academic. "Kick out, Ronda," Booker tried to will her during the count, but it was never going to happen.

The referee got the three count and Cole announced with disgust, "Lopez is the champion. Why? Someone tell me why?"

JBL had already walked around the side of the ring and grabbed the Divas title, and he joined all three members of what was apparently his team of Divas as they jogged towards the limo.

"They're running away like... Like nothing more than thieves," Cole whined.

The crowd were as disgusted as he was, and began to chant, "Bullshit!"

JBL was last to enter the limo. As soon as he slammed the door closed, the limo backed out of the arena. It was then shown turning around in the parking garage, before speeding away out of the arena. The shot returned to the ring, where Ronda was struggling to even crawl across the canvas to the ropes in the hope that they might help her to stand.

It was time for Cole to close the segment. "I don't believe what we just saw. JBL showed up with some kind of team of NXT Divas, they all attached Ronda Rousey, then they stole the Divas title from her. This was a joke, a complete joke."

"Only it wasn't funny," Booker mumbled.


	4. Chapter 4

The week-long tour of Europe had been so frantic that it seemed to be over almost as soon as it started. For Seth, the fact that he and Ronda had spent most of it apart was not a surprise, but it was a disappointment. For a wrestler, any kind of relationship was hard to maintain at times due to travel commitments, even a relationship with another wrestler. It was great that they could spend time together on Mondays and Tuesdays, but they would often be booked at different house shows during the rest of the week, and were therefore be unable to see each other. The European tour had been no different, which meant that when WWE returned to the US, it was the first time that Seth had seen Ronda for several days, aside from FaceTime calls.

When they had finally been reunited back in the US, Ronda had surprised him by complaining bitterly about how she had been booked to lose to Sarita Lopez, thanks to being screwed over by Anna and Alex, on every house show of the tour. It was an attitude that he had not seen from her before, but he had calmed her down by explaining that she was being booked that way to build her up rather than as way to bury her, and that what Hunter was going for with her character was someone who went out to the ring to stand up for herself without showing fear, even with the odds against her, and even if it meant going down fighting. He had gone on to point out that it was obviously working, since she was proving to be crazy popular with the fans. Pleasingly, she had accepted his point of view and agreed that he was right. She had openly told him that the reason she was angry about constantly losing was that her goal was to not only become the most popular Diva in WWE, she wanted to become the most popular person in the company as a whole.

Seth knew that what Ronda meant by becoming the most popular actually meant being the one who got the biggest responses from the crowd every week. It seemed obvious that she was never going to top people like John Cena in terms of merchandise sales and things of that nature. He had to admire her ambition, even if he considered it to be unlikely that she would succeed in her goal. Either way. he had to be supportive of her. He also had to admit that she had a certain charisma that seemed to energise the crowds when she was in the ring. It was tough to explain what exactly it was that resonated so well with them, but his best guess was that it was the same thing that had first attracted him to her: the fact that she was so hot and so badass at the same time. Add that to the way that she worked so stiff in her matches, which made her moves look so impactful, and she had the basics to be very successful. It was only really the ability to talk in the ring that she lacked, and that could be learned in time.

After Raw the previous week, Ronda had understandably been disappointed to have the Divas Championship taken from her after holding it for only two weeks, but Seth had explained that she could use that loss to get even more over with the fans. He suggested that she could put something on her social media thanking the fans for their support and making out that both she and the fans were in this thing against the new team of Divas together. Ronda had liked the idea and had uploaded a picture to Twitter, Instagram and Facebook of her crawling across the ring after the beating she had received with the message: _Thank you all for your support tonight. We win and lose together._

She had originally added 'Never give up' to the end of the message, but Seth had reminded her that it was one of Cena's catchphrases, and it would be better not to use it for that reason. It had proven to be a good decision as the 'We win and lose together' line had really seemed to take off with the amount of likes, retweets and messages of support that it had generated. It was now clear how Ronda would have to play any victory she got: by making out that not only she, but everyone in the building had just achieved it together.

All of this was why the answer to the question that Ronda posed to him across the table in catering backstage before Raw when referring to the new tagline was an easy one for Seth. "Should I add it to this?" she had asked, showing him her phone. She was uploading one of the graphics that would appear on Raw to show matches which were coming up on the show that night. It showed Ronda on one side and Anna Hollenbeck and Alexis Styles on the other side. The heading above the picture was 'Two on one handicap elimination match,' with the word 'Tonight' below the picture.

"Of course," Seth nodded. "Put it on everything you upload that relates in any way. The only way to make something catch on is to keep forcing it in people's faces." He slid his empty plate away. He was the last to finish eating, but no one was in a hurry to leave as it was a convenient place for he and Ronda to sit with Roman and Dean.

"We win and lose together," Roman said. He was sitting beside Ronda and shaking his head slightly. "And they give me 'Believe that' for a catchphrase."

"Should have thought of one yourself then, asshole," Dean quipped from beside Seth.

"Oh really?" Roman feigned irritation. "What's your catchphrase again, genius?"

There was silence for a moment as Dean had no answer, then the other three people at the table started laughing at his expense. "Oh, that's right," Seth recalled, "He's 'unstable' which means he pushes a hot dog cart around the place."

More laughter came Dean's way. "Alright, you can fuck off now," he griped at them all. "You know I never wanted to do that stupid crap to start with."

"Why did you then?" Ronda asked as she returned her attention to her phone.

"Sometimes you just have to do what they say, regardless of how stupid it is," Dean pointed out, thinking that it was a strange question.

"Sometimes?" Ronda asked.

Dean shrugged, not that she could see the gesture as she focused on her phone. "Yeah, sometimes they'll listen and change something if you dig your heels in hard enough."

The conversation continued for several minutes before Sarita Lopez approached the table with a nervous smile on her face. "Ronda? Stephanie asked me to come find you. She wants you and me in the office." Her words were delivered in very curious mix of a Puerto Rican and Brooklyn accent.

Ronda knew that Stephanie was in charge for tonight's show, as her husband apparently had some kind of business elsewhere. She also noticed Dean, who was closest to where Sarita was standing, failing to make much of a secret of the fact that he was staring at her silicon-filled breasts. "Okay," Ronda sighed as she stood to follow the new Divas Champion out of the room. The prospect of speaking to Stephanie at any time was not one that Ronda relished because neither woman liked the other, and neither of them made a secret of it either.

"I'll meet you back in the locker room," Seth said as his lover departed. No one at the table could have known what Dean's words minutes before were going to cause to happen.

* * *

"Hello, Ronda," Stephanie McMahon smiled as Ronda and Sarita entered her office. The warmth of the smile stopped short of her eyes, a fact which was not lost on Ronda.

"Hey," was the only thing she said in return.

Having the cool reaction thrown back at her seemed to throw Stephanie off for a second, which pleased Ronda. She wondered if Stephanie really thought that she could go around looking at people like pieces of garbage and they would continue to be polite to her in return. If that was what she thought, she was wrong, at least where Ronda was concerned.

"You've read the script for tonight?" Stephanie asked.

"Yes," Ronda replied, as if she considered the question to be an insult, which in a way it was, given that it would have been incredibly stupid for her not to have read over her script by this point in the day.

"Good. We had a creative conference call earlier and things are changing a little. Sarita, you're not going to be on commentary during the handicap match. You're going to come through the crowd after the match and you're going to attack Ronda with a chair, supposedly hitting her repeatedly in the legs, targeting one of her knees. Ronda, this will leave you 'injured' until Extreme Rules and the elimination cage match for the Divas Money in the Bank."

"The what for the what?" Ronda asked, surprised to say the least.

"Yes," Stephanie confirmed. "We're going to have a Divas Money in the Bank briefcase, but we're not going to have it won in a ladder match. It's going to be awarded to the winner of the elimination cage match. A Diva will enter the cage every ninety seconds, the same as in the Royal Rumble, with eliminations occurring by pin or submission. I think it's a very good and innovative idea," she finished proudly, indicating that it had been one of her own.

"Me too," Ronda had to admit. The fact that WWE were bringing in a Divas Money in the Bank could only be a good thing for the division as a whole. "So, I'm in this cage match?"

"You are," Stephanie nodded. "But we're here to talk about tonight. You're going to lose the handicap match, then Sarita is going to injure you."

Ronda held up a hand to stop Stephanie, even though she had just finished speaking anyway. "I'm going to _lose_ the handicap match? How does that possibly make sense? I'm already going to get a beating afterwards from Sarita. Where's the sense in me losing to the other two as well?"

"That's what's happening," Stephanie said dismissively. "The idea is that the fans get behind you because you're repeatedly... Hell, you already know all of this. Just go out there and do it."

Anger was starting to build up inside Ronda, but she tried to sound calm. "Have you not seen this thing I've got going on with 'We win and lose together?' What's going to be the point of that if all I do is lose? 'We constantly lose together' doesn't exactly have the same appeal, does it? You're going to kill my momentum with this pointless loss. Have me win the match and then get a beating. That will be totally fine. But if I lose? That's really burying me."

"Maybe she's right," Sarita ventured bravely, surprising Ronda. "It helps us all. The more popular Ronda gets, the more hated we get."

"I'm not debating this," Stephanie insisted coldly. "That's what's happening. You're going to eliminate one of them and then lose to the other. Is that clear?" Ronda turned to storm out of the office without replying, but Stephanie's voice grew louder and stopped her. "I'll have you say it, Ronda."

"I understand exactly what you want me to do," Ronda almost spat, glaring at Stephanie furiously. She stormed out of the office with Sarita trailing behind.

"Ronda, wait," Sarita called out, jogging along the hallway to catch up.

Ronda stopped and turned around, but she was too pissed off to want to talk to Sarita right now. "Look, thanks for taking my side back there, but right now it's a good idea if you stay well out of my way." With that, she stormed off, heading for her locker room. By the time she got there, she had decided what she was going to do, and had decided not to mention it to Seth. There would almost certainly be trouble, and if Seth didn't know what was going to happen, he couldn't be dragged into the fallout. Ronda had decided that Stephanie could go fuck herself because there was no way that she was losing the handicap match.

* * *

 _ **Monday Night Raw 20th April 2015**_

Following the opening match of the show, the sound of the Stock Exchange bell, which served as the intro to JBL's music, filled the arena. This drew many groans and some boos from the crowd, which intensified as they noticed that it was in fact not JBL's entrance video that was playing along with the music. In fact it was not a video at all, but a photo of Sarita Lopez posing with the Divas Championship belt.

"Here comes the new Divas champion," Byron Saxton announced, now playing JBL's old role as the heel commentator. "Shhh. Be quiet. Let's savour this proud moment."

"Proud moment," Cole mumbled sarcastically before falling silent as requested.

The long white limo pulled into the arena and parked near the entrance. The driver got out and opened the rear door, and the three newest Divas on the roster emerged, Sarita the last of the three. They were all dressed very smartly in business-like black dresses. When Sarita emerged, she had an expression of supreme arrogance on her face. The three women sauntered very slowly to the ring, using even this as a way to make the crowd angry with them.

When they eventually climbed into the ring, Sarita stood in the centre for a moment, looking around at the crowd as though each and every one of them were the most repulsive things she had ever set eyes on. Slowly, she turned to her left and walked over to the ropes, staring out at the fans in front of her, still with the same expression of revulsion on her face. Slowly, she raised her right hand, which held the Divas title belt, into the air in a taunting kind of celebration. As she did so, a way over-exaggerated pyro display began on the stage, with at least twenty ridiculously loud explosions filling the area.

The pyro stopped and Sarita lowered the belt. The crowd could be heard booing even over her entrance music, which was still annoyingly repeating itself. Next, she walked over to the opposite side of the ring and repeated the exact same process. There was another deafening pyro display to accompany it, followed by even louder boos. The fans were getting angrier and angrier at this unbelievably overbearing and arrogant display to celebrate such a pathetic title victory the week before, but unfortunately for them, more was still to come.

Sarita approached the ropes on the commentary table side of the ring. By now, everyone knew what was coming. Some children were shown in the crowd with their hands covering their ears to protect against the impending explosions from the stage. Sarita raised her title belt high in the air once more and the pyro display repeated itself for the third time. When it was over, Sarita walked into the centre of the ring, facing the entrance and the big screen that still bore her own photo. Her two teammates began applauding and, somehow, the arrogant expression on her face got even worse, as this time she raised the belt in the air in both hands. An even more impressive pyro display erupted, starting on the stage and even up in the air above it, finally culminating with yet more explosions and a loud shrill whistling sound as fountains of white pyro erupted from the ring posts. Confetti cascaded into the ring.

Finally, the entrance music stopped and the crowd booed thunderously at the sickening display. Anna had fetched a microphone and handed it to Sarita. It appeared that some sort of explanation might be forthcoming as to what the purpose of this team was, and why they were aligned with each other and with JBL, but after looking around at the crowd in disgust once more Sarita, tossed the microphone out of the ring towards Lillian Garcia and walked out of the ring, her music starting again to accompany her.

"That's the most pathetic, repulsive, distasteful display I've ever seen," Cole moaned bitterly.

"It's made me feel sick," Booker T mumbled.

"I thought it was great," Saxton countered. "A new champion deserves a celebration like that."

Michael Cole made a derisive snorting sound. "Champion? Please. Ronda Rousey is still the champion as far as I'm concerned."

"It doesn't look like it to me," Saxton took pleasure in saying.

By this point, the three women had walked up the ramp and through the curtain. They were picked up again by another camera in the back, walking through the curtain and then heading along a hallway. Watching on the big screen, the crowd erupted because they saw what the three women had not: Ronda Rousey had been waiting, hidden behind the curtain, and they had walked right past her. Taking them by surprise, Ronda came from behind and knocked Sarita down. Anna and Alex spun around and attempted to attack Ronda, but she blocked Alex's attempted right hand and caught her with a huge one of her own, knocking her down. The crowd was going wild as Anna was the next one to attempt an attack by grabbing Ronda from behind, but Ronda powered out and whipped Anna incredibly hard into a steel roller shutter door. The loud crash of the impact was greeted by another loud cheer from the crowd.

A group of referees appeared before Ronda could go for Sarita once more, grabbing her and preventing her from doing so by restraining her up against the steel door that Anna had just been slammed into. JBL was next to arrive, trying to calm Sarita down as she shrieked hysterical protests at him. "Don't worry about her for now," he could be heard saying. "Come with me, I've got an idea for what we can do about this. What do you say we take her out for good?"

It became apparent how little Sarita's teammates actually meant to her as she walked off side by side with JBL without showing any concern, or even interest in either of them. "I say I like that idea a lot," she smiled.

"The last thing we need is her winning the Divas Money in the Bank," JBL said.

They both walked on with smiles on their faces for a moment, but then they both stopped, staring at someone who was not in the shot with looks of surprise on their faces. The crowd erupted again as the camera panned left and revealed a short woman, only standing at five feet, with long black hair worn in corn rows. She had dark brown eyes and pale skin, however it was not quite as pale as that of Paige or Sheamus. She wore a big smile on her face. The woman was May Devany, the most popular Diva from NXT, and until very recently, the NXT Women's Champion.

"Don't worry about it guys," May said cheerfully. "Ronda Rousey won't be winning the Money in the Bank. I will." The camera followed her as she turned and walked away.

* * *

The elimination handicap match had been a fairly even contest for the first five minutes before the team of Anna and Alex eventually managed to get the upper hand on Ronda. They spent some time making frequent tags and using the opportunities to double team her as often as possible, drawing heat from the crowd in the process. Despite the fact that they chanted Ronda's name loudly to encourage her, she was unable to mount any kind of significant offence. After a few minutes of being beaten on, Ronda looked to be almost done, having to be lifted to her feet by Anna, who tagged Alex in once more.

When Anna entered the ring, they whipped Ronda into the ropes. As she came off the ropes and back at them, they attempted a double clothesline, however Ronda ran right through it, hit the ropes on the opposite side of the ring and caught the two women with a double clothesline of her own as they spun around. The crowd erupted at this sign of a potential comeback.

Ronda let out a scream of rage as she gestured for the crowd to get behind her and make even more noise. The crowd responded, and the noise began to rise as Anna ran at Ronda, who ducked out of the way and simultaneously pulled down the top rope, sending Anna falling over it to the outside. Alex came at Ronda next, attempting a clothesline which Ronda ducked. Suddenly, as if from nowhere, she was in position for a German suplex. The crowd roared, then cheered as Alex was sent flying across the ring, landing hard on her back. She got up remarkably quickly, only to turn around into a Clothesline from Hell which connected with the now familiar "Boom!" from the crowd. Ronda covered Alex and the crowd counted along with the formality that was the count.

"One down, one to go," Cole enthused, as if directly encouraging Ronda.

"Wait a minute," Booker called out. "Ronda, look out!"

The referee was helping the destroyed Alex out of the ring and, rather unwisely, Ronda was standing and watching him do it. Taking advantage, Anna came from behind her with a steel chair in her hands. Ronda turned around and took a chair shot to the stomach, followed by an even harder one to the back as she doubled over in pain.

This was supposed to be the end of the match. The referee turned around as Anna made the cover. Conveniently, he ignored the black chair which was lying on the canvas and made his count, but Ronda kicked out at two. Ronda rolled over, closer to the centre of the ring.

Anna walked over and stood over her, unsure why she had kicked out instead of giving her the win as she was supposed to. "What are you doing?" she asked quietly. Before she knew what was happening, Ronda had grabbed her and pulled her down to the mat. At the same moment, she could feel incredible pain in shoulder and elbow. The crowd was going insane, but all Anna could focus on was that Ronda had put her into an armbar, a real submission hold, and the pain was unbearable. Without even thinking about it, she did the obvious thing and tapped out furiously, pounding her hand onto the mat.

Unsure what was going on, but having been left with no alternative by Ronda's actions and the explosion from the crowd at the obvious winning submission, the referee called for the bell and awarded the match to Ronda. The fallout from this would be her problem, not his. Ronda was up already and ran over to one of the corners of the ring, jumping up on the turnbuckles and roaring like a wild animal in celebration. She was in the middle of pointing at the fans and then back at herself as she yelled that they had all done this together when the cheering almost stopped.

Sarita Lopez had rolled into the ring and picked up the chair. Ronda turned around and dropped from the turnbuckles in an attempt to defend herself, but it was already too late. She took another chair shot to the stomach and fell to the canvas. Sarita proceeded to wear her out with the chair, particularly focusing on her left knee as the crowd booed furiously.

"Stop that, you'll cripple her," Cole pleaded, sticking to the script for the final part of the segment, even though he knew that Ronda had just won against orders.

Sarita raised the chair high in the air and brought it down for one final blow onto Ronda's knee, leaving her writhing around and screaming in pain.

"Oh my God," Booker exclaimed. "Ronda Rousey is done."

"That's what you get when you cross the Divas Champion," Saxton said cockily as Sarita tossed the chair angrily aside and left the ring, once more leaving her two teammates behind.

Backstage, Stephanie McMahon was already on her cell phone, waiting for her call to be answered by her husband. "Hey, it's me," she greeted Hunter when he answered. "We have a big problem."


	5. Chapter 5

The reaction that Ronda's improvised victory had generated from the crowd in the arena had done more than enough to convince her that she had done the right thing in defying Stephanie McMahon's instruction to lose the handicap match. The crowd had been going insane as they celebrated the fact that she had beaten both Anna and Alex in the same match, until Sarita had arrived in the ring and gone to work with a steel chair. Their cheers had turned to boos, which was exactly how it should have been, at least in Ronda's mind. She knew that Sarita agreed with her, and had been brave enough to say so to Stephanie, only to totally ignored. In Ronda's opinion, the only person who had refused to see the logic was Stephanie, so she fully expected to get both barrels from the supposed boss for the night the moment she finished limping up the ramp with the help of two extras playing the part of paramedics, selling her storyline knee injury, and walked through the curtain.

Surprisingly, when she got backstage and the paramedics made themselves scarce, there was no sign of Stephanie, or of anyone else who wanted to get in her face about what she had just done. Sarita came over to briefly check that she was okay and that none of her chair shots had done any real damage, but she did not mention the changed ending of the match. Ronda assured her that she was fine and waited for Anna to walk through the curtain, knowing that she would be pissed at being put into a real submission hold without warning _and_ having a victory stolen from her.

Sure enough, a moment later, Anna and Alex appeared through the curtain together and, to make matters worse, Anna was holding her shoulder, obviously in pain. "What the hell was that?" she demanded angrily as she approached Ronda. "What the hell did you do that for, huh?"

Ronda held up a hand both to try to calm down the angry woman and to acknowledge that she was in the wrong, which, as far as Anna was concerned, was true. "I'm sorry, okay? This wasn't about you. It's not personal, it was about Stephanie making a total mess of the booking."

Anna made a sarcastic snorting sound. "Really? So how about you come to me with this before the match instead of damn near pulling my shoulder out of the socket?"

"Because if I told you about it beforehand, you would have gotten in shit for it like I'm about to, if you would have even agreed to it. This way, it's all on me."

"You know, that ego is going to give you some real problems," Alex said in her North Carolina drawl, looking distastefully at Ronda who sighed inwardly, thinking that she had just added two more to the growing number of Divas in the locker room who didn't like her. "Maybe Stephanie will do something about this or maybe she won't," Alex went on. "But I will tell you to your face, you pull that shit with me and you'll get a very different reaction. Come on, Anna."

As the two teammates walked away, Ronda felt glad that she had been able to stop herself from grabbing hold of Alex and showing her how she usually responded to threats, veiled or not. Putting someone in hospital was hardly the correct course of action right now though, and anyway, Alex and Anna _did_ have a legitimate reason to be pissed with her. She turned to head for her locker room, but as she did so, she saw that Seth had appeared and was waiting for the little altercation to end. Stephanie was still conspicuous by her absence.

"What were you thinking?" Seth asked as she walked over to him and they started walking side by side towards the locker room. He didn't sound angry as such, but his voice definitely contained irritation and surprise at her actions.

"Really?" Ronda asked. "You're going to start with me now? I did the right thing out there. Stephanie's idea was stupid and would've helped no one. She's just trying to bury me because she knows I'm more popular than she could ever be, and I'm a better athlete than she could ever be. I think it's what guys call a pissing contest."

"You do realise how unprofessional what you just did was?" Seth asked, shaking his head slightly at her.

Ronda didn't want them to end up in an argument, so she decided to be the one to back down before it could get started. "Look, I don't want us to fight over this. I know you don't like what I did and I get why, but this is _my_ career. You must understand how I feel, at least? I've only just gotten started here and I have great momentum, and that idiot wants to ruin it for me for no other reason than her ego. I'm not going to stand for it, and I'm prepared to tell Hunter that."

"You're right," Seth conceded. "I can see what you're saying, and no, we shouldn't get into a fight over it. However, you need to know that you're going to take serious heat for this, with the Divas and with Hunter. It's just not how things are done here. You think I've never lost a match that I thought I should have won? It's part of the job, Ronda."

"I know," was all Ronda said in reply as they reached their locker room, another attempt to avoid this becoming an argument.

Seth smiled and his eyes gleamed as he pushed the door open for Ronda to enter first. "That armbar was badass, though. They should have you use that more. I love it when you get vicious like that." he added as he closed the door after entering. Ronda immediately slammed him hard up against it, pinning him there by her own proximity to him.

"What about like that?" she asked quietly, feeling lust taking over her and seeing the same thing in Seth's eyes.

"Even better," Seth whispered, before beginning to kiss her.

* * *

Sex in the locker room had been a first and, of course, it had been great, but it had also made Ronda clean forget to do what she had meant to do as soon as she could. She had a very important text message to send. "God damn it," she exclaimed when she finally remembered about it in the car as Seth drove them to their hotel. "I need to text Hunter and ask him if we can talk about tonight."

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Seth agreed. "Thinking about it, it worries me that Steph didn't haul you over the coals back there. I don't think silence is a good thing here."

"Hmmm," Ronda mumbled in agreement as she began to type out her message to the boss. _Can we talk about tonight? I know what I did was wrong, but I hope that you'll understand when I explain it from my point of view._ She knew that there was no need to sign her name; Hunter would have her number saved.

The response didn't take long to come. Ronda sighed as she read it. _Trust me, we're going to talk. You, Stephanie and I are going sit down next Monday and talk this over._

"What did he say?" Seth asked.

"I've got to sit down with him and Stephanie next week and talk this over. I'm sure that's going to be great fun, especially after she's had all week to chirp at him about me."

"Sorry babe," Seth shrugged, "But you've made your own bed on this one. Hunter's not a bad boss though; he'll be firm but fair."

Ronda said nothing as she looked out at the traffic. She wasn't focussing on it, though because the image she had in her head was of her putting Stephanie in an armbar and listening to her screaming in pain. It was enough to raise a smile, but it was a pity that it would never happen. A real pity.

* * *

Standing outside the door of Hunter's office, which was where she had just been summoned to, Ronda paused. She wondered if it was best to walk in and greet Hunter with a smile. Would he think that she was taking this lightly if she did so, or would he think she was being rude or arrogant if she didn't? Shaking her head, she decided to try to find some kind of middle ground between a serious expression and a smile, reminding herself to be polite to Stephanie as well, even though doing so would mean swallowing her pride. This was a job after all, and these people were the bosses, given that Vince seemed to have very little to do with running the shows anymore. Often, he was not even there these days.

Making sure that she had what felt like the right kind of expression on her face, she knocked on the door opened it, only to receive a surprise. There was no sign of Stephanie. "Hi, Hunter," she greeted the boss, trying to keep the surprise out of her voice. Even so, he could hardly have missed it.

"Sit down, Ronda," Hunter ordered, his voice calmer than she had expected it to be as he gestured to a chair opposite his desk. "It's just going to be the two of us. I decided it would be best this way. I've already heard Stephanie's side of what happened, so let's hear yours."

Ronda had put a lot of thought into what to say when this point arrived during the previous week. But now, as she sat down with the moment at hand, she hesitated before saying anything. The speech that she had planned out in advance just did not feel right anymore, now that she was looking Hunter in the eye. He could accuse her of unprofessionalism, but she was not going to give him the right or the opportunity to call her a liar. "I've thought about this all week," she began. "I'm sure that's no surprise to you. I came in here knowing what I was going to say, but you know what? I'm not going to say it. I'm going to be honest. Am I sorry for what happened? Yes, but only to a point. I'm sorry that I broke script, and I'm sorry that I hurt Anna and pissed her off. But I still insist that I made the right call in winning that match. Stephanie's idea of having me lose and then get beaten on was stupid and made no sense. I told her that and she wouldn't listen. Even Sarita..."

"Stop," Hunter ordered, raising his voice a fraction. "You want to know how many times I broke script in WWE, or WWF as it was back then?"

"Yes," Ronda replied earnestly and without hesitating, now getting the idea that she was going to learn something from this meeting rather than just get a roasting.

"Once," Hunter announced with a hint of a smile at the memory. "Afterwards, I sat down with Vince in a meeting very similar to this one, and he told me that I was supposed to be one of his biggest stars and that I had greatly disappointed him. He also said that if I ever did it again, my ass would disappear so fast that I wouldn't even know how it had happened. I'm now in his position and you're now in mine. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes," Ronda confirmed rather weakly. There were several aspects to the message that she had just been given. None of them were lost on her. What surprised her was that she felt ashamed that he was disappointed in her, more than anything else. "It won't happen again," she promised.

"No one's perfect, we all make mistakes," Hunter continued. "I do, and as we've seen, you certainly do, but the thing about mistakes is that you have to make them once in order to learn from them. We also make mistakes with our storyline writing and with our match booking and we look back afterwards and think 'Yeah, that would have been the better option', but that's _not_ your job. Your job is to go out there, say what you're told to say and wrestle your matches to the endings that you're told to deliver."

"I understand," Ronda nodded.

"Good. Now, this thing with you and Steph. It stops, and it stops _now_. I've told her the same thing. I don't want to know what the problem is, because honestly? I don't give a shit. There are plenty of people here who don't like each other, but this is a place of work, a place to act professionally, and that's what you're going to do. Understood?"

"Yes," Ronda said once more. "What happens now? I mean, I know I'm going to get a punishment." It looked to her as if her punishment had not been decided in advance, as this time, it was Hunter who hesitated for a moment.

"What punishment do you think Vince gave to me that day?" he asked eventually.

Despite herself, Ronda smiled a little. She just couldn't help it at the image in her head of the younger Triple H being screamed at by Vince. "A serious fine, at the very least," she ventured, knowing that she was opening herself up for the same thing by doing so.

"Sort of," Hunter agreed, with a smile that Ronda found a little strange. "He told me I was going to get fined five thousand dollars. But you know what? He never took it from my pay check, and I seriously doubt that it was because he forgot about it. You know why he did that? Because he knew that what he said to me had already done the job of teaching me the lesson, and that taking the money would only make me resentful, even though I was in the wrong. So, your punishment is this: You go find Chad Patton in the referee's locker room and you apologise for him having to be put in the position he was in last week. Then you go find Anna Hollenbeck and apologise to her for what you did. And finally, you better damn well learn the lesson I'm trying to teach you here today. Because if we have a conversation like this again, you're going to be in the deepest of shit."

"Got it," Ronda managed to say, feeling a very strange mix of emotions indeed. The meeting had not gone how she had expected, but it sure had served its purpose. She would not be breaking script again, that was for definite. Apart from anything else, she would feel too guilty if she did so, as if she had betrayed Hunter and thrown this important lesson and vote of confidence, because that was what it really was, in the trash.

She stood to leave, but Hunter was not done. "If my wife, or anyone else for that matter, asks you about this meeting, I fined you ten grand."

"Right," Ronda smiled.

Now Hunter stood too, and Ronda saw a new level of intensity in his eyes as he put his hands on the desk and leaned over it slightly. The intensity was also present in his voice when he spoke. "The cage match at Extreme Rules. I want it to be like nothing that's ever been seen in women's wrestling before. Are you going to deliver that for me and prove to me that I was right to give you the push I gave you, or are you going to let me down?"

Intensity was something that Ronda could deliver easily and she matched Hunter's as she assured him, "I won't let you down."

"I know," he said, looking fired up. "You can go now."

Ronda walked out of the office, feeling so fired up herself that she wished Extreme Rules was taking place right then and there, not in six days. When the time came, she would make sure to put on a performance in the cage match, regardless of whether she was booked to win it or not.


	6. Chapter 6

**_Extreme Rules 2015_**

A steel cage had descended on the ring while the TV coverage had been showing a promo for the upcoming match. Before the first two Divas could make an entrance, Lillian Garcia needed to explain the rules. "Ladies and gentlemen, the next contest is the twelve Diva elimination cage match for the Divas Money in the Bank briefcase. In a moment, the Divas that drew numbers one and two will enter the cage. Another Diva will then enter every ninety seconds, according to the number they drew. Eliminations can only occur by pin fall or submission. The last Diva standing will be awarded the Money in the Bank contract, which will be good for a match for the WWE Divas Championship at any time during the next twelve months."

"Thanks Lillian, we'd like to get out of here at some point tonight," Byron Saxton groaned sarcastically at the protracted announcement.

Summer Rae and Naomi were the first two women to enter the match, followed by Layla. It was a relatively low key start, and there had been no eliminations by the time the countdown for entrant number four was completed. JBL's theme music played and Alexis Styles ran to the ring and entered the cage. Both Alex and Anna Hollenbeck had been entered into the match under orders to prevent Ronda Rousey from winning at all costs. Sarita Lopez wanted no part of Ronda and had made the fact perfectly clear without actually saying it. Upon entering the ring, Alex approached Summer from behind as she was stomping on Layla, spun her around and delivered a Twist of Fate for an easy three count and the first elimination.

Next, Alex picked up Layla and repeated her finishing move to score herself a second elimination. Naomi put up a little bit more of a fight, but after exchanging a few moves, Alex was able to hit a third Twist of Fate before heading to a corner of the ring and climbing to the top rope. She hit a picture perfect moonsault, which resulted in another three count.

"Styles just cleared house, Cole," Saxton enthused. "You can't sit there and tell me that doesn't impress you."

"It was very impressive," Cole admitted. "But we've got plenty more Divas to come."

"I'd like to see her deal with Ronda Rousey that easily," Lawler joked as the countdown started again. The crowd clearly agreed as the countdown was mixed in with some people chanting Ronda's name. "Here comes number five. Maybe it'll be someone more challenging?"

Nikki Bella's music and video played and the crowd cheered. The Bella twins had automatically became faces following Daniel Bryan's death, particularly Brie, for obvious reasons, so Nikki got a nice reception as she ran to the ring. From this point on, the ring began to fill with Divas as there were no eliminations over the period covering the arrivals of Natalya, the returning Paige, and Cameron. The countdown began for the ninth entrant and the crowd joined in without much enthusiasm. The match had not really generated much excitement as yet.

The buzzer sounded and JBL's music played again, drawing some boos. Anna ran to the ring and got in the cage. The first thing she did was help Alex to her feet. She had been sitting slumped in one corner, but now that Anna was there with her, she seemed to be revitalised. They exchanged a high five, but when they turned around, they saw that all of the other Divas in the match had stopped fighting and were instead standing and starting at them with hostile expressions on their faces. The crowd cheered, liking the look of the four on two odds.

Anna and Alex attempted to talk themselves out of the beating that was coming their way, but it was to no avail. The crowd took great pleasure in watching Nikki, Natalya, Paige and Cameron perform their signature moves before Paige slammed Anna hard into the cage and Nikki got the Rack Attack on Alex for a three count.

As that was happening, Cameron attacked Paige, ending the temporary alliance just as countdown for the tenth entrant started. The crowd were so focused on Nikki eliminating Alex that they only began to join in with the count at four.

"Is Rousey ever coming out?" Lawler asked. The buzzer sounded and his question was answered by Ronda's theme music hitting to a thunderous reception from the crowd.

"Does that answer your question, King?" Cole yelled as Ronda marched to the ring with her usual determined expression on her face. She had some very noticeable white strapping on her supposedly injured knee. "Ronda Rousey drew number ten, and here she comes!"

Ronda got in the cage and started throwing punches at everyone in sight with each one accompanied by shouts of "Boom!", which was now the crowd's favourite thing to do when Ronda was in the ring. Every Diva in the ring took at least one punch each and were all knocked down in turn. Nikki was the first one up, but the crowd roared encouragement as Ronda got her in position for a German suplex. Ronda nailed the move and Nikki ended up a crumpled mess on the floor.

Before Ronda could attempt a cover, Cameron foolishly came at her from behind. Sensing her coming, Ronda spun around, delivering a Clothesline From Hell in the same motion. "Thanks for coming, Cameron," Cole said as Ronda made the cover, which was academic.

Paige went for Ronda next as she stood up from eliminating Cameron, grabbing her and whipping her across the ring into one of the corners. Paige ran at Ronda, who sprinted out of the way and off to the side, leaving Paige to crash chest first into the turnbuckles. Everyone knew what was coming next. "Boom!" The clothesline connected and Paige was also eliminated, the crowd counting along with the referee. Ronda's arrival in the match had invigorated them.

Natalya was the one to finally do something sensible and chop block Ronda's knee, taking her down and causing her to roll around in pain immediately, selling her supposed injury. Natalya stayed down too, which meant there was no one standing in the ring as the countdown started again, with the crowd joining in loudly this time.

The buzzer sounded and the crowd erupted again when Brie Bella's music played. It was actually possible that the crowd wanted Brie to win more than Ronda for sentimental reasons. Brie entered the ring and the only person getting up was Nikki. If the crowd expected the twins to form an alliance, they were proven wrong. They yelled in surprise when Brie ran at her sister and connected with a running knee.

"One! Two! Three!"

"Every woman for herself," Cole reminded the audience as Brie immediately started helping her sister up and consoling her, trying to explain herself. After a moment of discussion, which seemed apologetic on Brie's part, Nikki hugged her sister and left the cage. Natalya was getting up now, so Brie climbed to middle rope and delivered a dropkick, which put her right back down again. Next, Ronda was up and Brie whipped her into the corner. Wisely, Brie did not attempt to run in on Ronda. Instead, she lifted her to top turnbuckle before climbing up herself, in position to deliver a superplex.

At that moment, the countdown started for the final time. The crowd counted down as Brie delivered the superplex to Ronda in the ring. The buzzer sounded and "Cold Machines" by Alice Cooper began to play, along with May Devany's entrance video. The crowd erupted for the third consecutive time as the popular former NXT Diva ran down the entrance. "Fortune could be smiling on May Devany," Cole said excitedly. "She's our final entrant. Wait a minute..."

Rather than running around to the door and entering the cage, May had rapidly started to climb up the side of it. Nearly the whole crowd knew that May's finishing move was the Five Star Frog Splash. May got in position on top as the cage as Cole realised who the target was, lying prone on the mat in a perfect position. "Wait a minute! Ronda Rousey just got taken down..."

May launched herself from the top of the cage and the crowd yelled in a combination of awe and shock as she soared through the air, greeting the huge impact as she connected flush with Ronda in the same way that they always greeted Ronda's own finishing move. "Boom!"

"My God, what a Five Star!" Lawler screamed as May rolled around, holding her stomach in agony after the impact of her own move. Ronda was doing the same, and rolled as far into the corner as she could get, taking herself out of the action.

"You idiot!" Saxton yelled at May.

Natalya was now up and waiting for May, who struggled to her feet and turned around right into a discus clothesline. The crowd groaned in disappointment as Natalya got the three count.

"May Devany never recovered from delivering her own finishing move," Cole said.

While that pin happened, Brie had gotten to her feet and Ronda was just doing the same as Natalya stood up. Blood poured from Ronda's nose, revealing that May had broken it when connecting with the five star. There was also swelling and a small cut on her cheek which was seeping blood, and she was covering her stomach with her left arm, selling some kind of injury there too. The three remaining women stood in a corner each, looking at each other.

Natalya decided to try to make an alliance with Brie, her hand gestures emphasising her words and making her intentions clear to all. "You and I take out her," she said, pointing at Brie and then herself before making a punching gesture and pointing at Ronda. "Then you and I can fight it out."

"You and I take out her?" Brie asked, repeating the same gestures. She paused for a second as if thinking, but then the crowd cheered loudly as she shook her head. Undeterred, Natalya repeated her offer to Ronda instead, pointing at Brie.

"You and I take out her?" Ronda asked, making the same hand gestures. The crowd groaned in surprise as Ronda smiled and nodded her head. Happy with her successful negotiating, Natalya began to walk towards Brie, but as she did so, Ronda grabbed her from behind, in position for a German suplex. It was a cheap way to get a pop from the crowd, but it worked big time, and after she hit the move, they all chanted her name to the point where it was almost deafening.

Seeing an opportunity for an elimination, Brie got in position to run across the ring and deliver the running knee to Natalya as she groggily got to her feet. Brie sprinted across the ring and launched herself into her finishing move, but Natalya countered by aiming a kick at Brie. The kick connected squarely with the side of the onrushing woman's head, almost knocking her out and giving her what would later be diagnosed as a concussion. The impact of the kick was not lost on the crowd who began to chant, "Holy shit!"

Ronda realised that Brie was in trouble, so she improvised to give her time to sort herself out, spending the next couple of minutes battling with Natalya. The referee informed Natalya that Brie was continuing the match, and told her what he wanted her to do next. Natalya passed the instruction on to Ronda, and a few moments later, the match was back on track.

Natalya had once again focused on Ronda's injured knee and now attempted to get her into the Sharpshooter. It was a struggle for her to get the more powerful Ronda turned over and lock the move in, but she managed it. Ronda was immediately screaming in pain as the pressure was applied to her injured knee. She struggled to claw her way across the ring to the ropes.

"This could be it for Ronda," Lawler yelped. "She's already got a knee injury. Look at the pain she's in here."

Brie managed to use the ropes to pull herself to her feet in the corner of the ring, but when she saw what has happening with the other two women, she just stood and watched. "Brie's not going to do anything to help Ronda," Cole said.

"Why should she?" Saxton demanded. "It's every woman for herself. I'm sure Brie's hoping that Ronda taps right here."

Slowly, Ronda managed to make her way across the ring and eventually grab the bottom rope with one hand. Only then did everyone remember that eliminations could occur by pinfall or submission only. There was no reason for the referee to call for the hold to be broken, as he could not disqualify Natalya for not doing so. Ronda continued to scream in pain as she reached out and grabbed onto the cage, using it to lift herself and alleviate some of the pressure of the hold.

Knowing that Ronda was not going to tap out, Natalya at last relinquished the Sharpshooter. As she did so, Ronda collapsed to the mat and Brie made her move, rushing over, kicking Natalya in the stomach and then picking her up on her shoulders. "Wait! That's Nikki's move," Cole called out as Brie hit a Rack Attack. Looking very unsteady, Brie got back up again and got in position to deliver her own finishing move. The running knee also connected to a loud cheer from the crowd. Brie crawled over and slumped herself over Natalya.

"One! Two! Three!"

"We're down to two," Cole announced. "Either Brie Bella or Ronda Rousey are walking out of here with a Money in the Bank contract."

Lawler said, "Ronda and Brie are down, both have been worn down significantly, but now it's time for them to suck it up and give everything they have. There's never been a prize like this up for grabs in the Divas division and both women feel like they've got to have it."

"We all know that Brie and Ronda are friends," Saxton joined in, "But right now, that means nothing."

The two women had crawled into opposite corners of the ring and managed to get themselves into sitting positions, staring at each other. The bleeding from Ronda's cheek and nose had stopped, but she looked a real mess, as did Brie whose eyes looked very glassy thanks to Natalya's kick. "Brie and Ronda have locked eyes," Cole said excitedly. "They know what awaits them, and they know that nothing that's happened up to this point matters any more. One more pinfall or submission is all we need."

Drawing on what little they had left, both women seemed to gain a fresh burst of energy and get to their feet almost at the same time. They walked into the centre of the ring and stood inches apart, staring into each others' eyes. Unable to choose between their two favourites, the crowd was remarkably loud, but more in anticipation of what was about to happen than in support of either Brie or Ronda specifically. Words began to be exchanged between the two as Lawler spoke, not even trying to keep the excitement out of his voice, "This is what you call the big fight feel, guys. I wish everyone at home could be here with us to experience this."

"You can't talk each other to death," Saxton chirped. "Let's go!"

Brie obliged him by throwing the first punch. The crowd roared as the two women blazed away at each other. Unsurprisingly, Ronda got the upper hand and soon had Brie staggering backwards into the ropes. She whipped her across the ring and into the ropes on the opposite side. Brie launched herself at Ronda in an attempt to deliver some kind of flying cross body move, but Ronda caught her and in the same motion launched her through the air in a vicious suplex style move that had no name as it had never been seen before.

"My God!" Cole exclaimed as Ronda made a cover. "Brie's broken in half!"

"One! Two!"

Brie kicked out at the last moment. The crowd had both counted along with the referee and cheered the kick out, now blindly supporting whoever might be able to win. Ronda stood, then leaned down to pick Brie up, but Brie kicked her in her injured knee, making her collapse to the mat, holding the injured joint in agony yet again.

From somewhere, Brie found the strength to get back up and ran to the ropes. Coming back off, she hit Ronda with a running knee just as she made it to her feet.

"One! Two!"

This time Ronda kicked out at the last moment.

Again, Brie got up and repeated exactly the same process, connecting with yet another running knee.

"One! Two!"

Again Ronda kicked out. By this point, every move, every count, and especially every kick out were sending the crowd almost literally insane.

Once more, Brie got up and got in position to complete the hat trick of running knee finishing move on Ronda, who somehow was actually getting up again, although she looked to be dead on her feet. Brie was wearing the black armband in memory of her husband, as she did for every match now, and as she prepared to spring at Ronda again, she kissed the armband, signifying that this was, in her opinion, going to be the end of the match.

"One more time," Cole yelled. "Come on Brie! Do it for Daniel!" The running knee connected again. "That's going to be all," Cole decided.

"One! Two!"

Ronda kicked out yet again.

"My God, it's not all!" Cole screamed in disbelief.

"Okay, Ronda's unbeatable," Lawler breathed quietly.

Brie looked like she was thinking the same thing as she pounded the mat in frustration several times. She stood, but looked unsure as what to attempt next. Three running knees had not beaten Ronda, so what would? She decided to climb to the top rope and attempt her signature dropkick. "Come on!" She could be heard screaming at Ronda as she waited, ready to strike. It took some time for Ronda to make it to a standing position and then to turn around. Brie launched herself through the air, but, rather than the dropkick knocking Ronda down, the more powerful woman plucked Brie out of the air in a flash, quickly manhandling her position to deliver one of her devastating German suplexes.

"Brie got caught!" Cole yelped. Ronda delivered the suplex, sending Brie sailing across the ring. She landed on the backs of her shoulders, but her head also took a large impact - a bad thing for someone who already had a concussion. Ronda rushed over and viciously dragged Brie's limp body away from the ropes before covering her.

"One! Two!"

Brie barely kicked out.

"I'm not believing what I'm seeing," Cole announced.

Ronda viciously hauled Brie to her feet and got in position to deliver the same move again. The crowd cheered, feeling certain that Brie could not kick out of another German suplex like the one she had just received. Ronda tired to execute the move, but Brie somehow held on to Ronda's left arm with both of her own, and rather than sailing through the air, she seemed to hover for a moment before both women crashed to the mat. In a heartbeat, Brie had a submission hold looked into Ronda, and it was a very familiar one, causing possibly the loudest eruption of the night from crowd.

"That's the Yes Lock!" Lawler called out. "Brie's got it locked in, in the middle of the ring!"

Being put in the hold had started Ronda's cheek bleeding again and the blood began to trickle over Brie's tightly clenched hands, adding even more drama to Ronda's attempts to crawl towards the ropes.

"Get to the ropes," Saxton urged. "This is for a Money in the Bank contract."

"It won't matter if she does," Cole reminded everyone. "The referee won't break the hold. Ronda's fading fast."

It was true; Ronda's attempts to struggle out of the hold were getting weaker by the second, as were her cries of pain. Just when it looked like she was about to fade away, she seemed to find something else within herself. Instead of trying again to break Brie's grasp of her directly, she pushed herself up with her one free arm and, in a remarkable feat of strength, managed to roll over on top of Brie, relieving the pressure. Brie however, had other ideas. As Ronda rolled on top of her, Brie also rolled at the same time and the end result was that both women ended up back in the middle of the ring, with Brie still having the Yes Lock on Ronda, if anything, in an even better than it had been before.

The crowd had been going crazy up to this point but now were actually almost silenced by the struggle that was going on in front of them, knowing that they were witnessing something truly remarkable. The loudest sounds were the screams being made by Brie. The reason for them was that she was in so much real pain from the two blows to her head that it seemed almost impossible for her to continue to wrench the pressure on Ronda.

"Look at this," Cole said quietly, sounding shocked by the spectacle. "I've never seen anything like this in my life."

Ronda was no longer trying to fight out of the hold. In fact, she was barely moving at all. Her eyes were closed and, although her hand still tugged at Brie's, which were locked over her face, it was almost pathetic resistance now.

"What happens if Ronda passes out?" Lawler asked.

"Then I guess Brie can pin her," Saxton said.

Ronda's hand fell away from Brie's and to the mat. Brie could not wrench on the hold any more by this point and looked almost as weak as her victim. "Come on Ronda, what do you say?" The referee could be heard asking over and over again.

Ronda's hand still moved slightly, but she could not even lift it to continue to resist Brie. In a motion that was so small that it was almost hard to perceive, she tapped lightly on the mat several times, drawing an incredible, emotional roar from the crowd.

"She's gone!" Cole screamed as the referee called for the bell, his voice almost breaking. "It's over. Finally, it's over."

Brie had instantly released the hold and collapsed face down on the canvas beside Ronda, who was lying face down, motionless. Brie's music played for a minute or so, but was then faded out as the cage was raised up and out of the way to allow medical personnel easier access to the ring. After the initial roar that the ending of the match had drawn from the crowd, they had quickly became hushed again, realising by the lack of celebration, or even any movement in the ring that at least one of the women, if not both, were seriously hurt. Ronda actually wasn't, aside from the broken nose, but she had given a lot physically. Not wanting to get up before Brie, she lay there, selling her injuries and exhaustion. During that time, the paramedics had come over and asked her if she was okay. When she mumbled that she was, they moved on to Brie, who definitely was not. Ronda heard them talking to her and to each other, and learned that her friend felt she had a concussion.

To make everything look more convincing, Ronda made a show of having a very difficult time of dragging herself to her feet using the ropes. The crowd began to applaud and chant her name as she staggered into the middle of the ring, but Ronda held up a hand to ask them, on this occasion, to stop. She took the red Money in the Bank briefcase from the referee and looked at it for a moment, as if wishing that it belonged to her before walking over and setting it down beside Brie. Ronda went down to a knee and shoved the paramedics aside for a moment, so that she could say something in private. "Brie, thank you for tonight. It's one of the best experiences of my life, and the best women's wrestling match there's ever been. Daniel's up there applauding you right now, you know that?"

"Yes," Brie said vaguely, glazed and tear-filled eyes trying to focus on Ronda, but not really succeeding. "Ronda? I love you."

"I love you, too." With that, Ronda stood and took a step back before starting to applaud her supposed adversary. The crowd quickly followed suit, having realised long before now that Brie must have sustained some kind of injury. No one sold for this long after a match, everyone knew that. Ronda left the ring with the standing ovation and applause still echoing around the arena as the coverage cut to a promo for the next month's pay-per-view.


	7. Chapter 7

"Guys, just so you know, there are way more people out there than there should have been. Someone screwed up and too many wristbands were given out. The place is packed. You're not going to have anything like enough time to get through everyone because we've only got an hour and a half," a male security guard informed Seth and Ronda. He had just come to their dressing room to pass on the news. It was the morning after Extreme Rules and they had been sent to do an autograph signing session at a local convention centre. It was a similar setup to that which was used at Axxess before the WWE's main pay-per-view events, the only difference being that Seth and Ronda were the only two stars there.

"Right," Seth said to the security guard, confirming that he understood. "We're ready to come out now," he added as he looked at Ronda just to be sure. Both of them were dressed in their WWE merchandise and he had his WWE title belt with him too. Ronda's makeup did a good job of hiding the two black eyes that had arrived courtesy of the broken nose that she had suffered in the cage match the previous night. She had gotten her nose straightened, thankful for the fact that there would be no lasting damage. The cut on her cheek was still visible, but, again, it would not leave a scar.

Ronda stood and followed Seth out of the dressing room and along the hallway towards the entrance to the conference room which was theirs alone to use. It would bring them out right behind the small stage which had been erected for the purpose of the meet and greet session. As they walked, Ronda found herself thinking about how unfair it was that some of the fans who had waited in line for hours to get a chance to see them, to get a picture with them, or to get their signatures on something, would have to leave empty-handed and disappointed. It didn't feel right to her at all.

"You go out first," Seth smiled at her when they reached the door.

"Huh?" Ronda asked. His words had brought her out of her thoughts, but she hadn't really heard what he had said.

"Ladies first," Seth said. "We'll go out separately, get them worked up a bit."

Ronda smiled, liking the idea. "I like that. But, you go out first. You're the champ."

"Okay," Seth agreed, leaning down slightly for a kiss. When he walked through the door and around the back of the stage, Ronda heard the waiting crowd erupt into a loud cheer. There was no feeling like that in the world, getting adoration from so many people. She absolutely loved it. She decided to hang back a moment before going out onto the stage, to keep them waiting for her. It did not take long at all for the delay to have the desired effect. Even through the closed door, she could hear a chant of "Ronda!" building up.

She left it for another moment before walking through the door and around the back of the stage. When the crowd saw her, they roared loudly. It seemed to her that it was louder than they had for Seth a few moments before. She climbed up the couple of small steps onto the stage and saw that Seth was laughing as he looked over at her.

Seth was laughing because he now knew that Ronda had gotten him to walk out first so that she could enjoy the bigger reaction. He had to remind himself at times that Ronda was very new to all of this, and had not worked her way up through the minor leagues and NXT before hitting the big time as he had. He figured that it must seem incredible to her to have so many people going crazy at the mere sight of her. It was something that he enjoyed a lot himself, but Ronda seemed to have some special connection with the fans. She fed off of them and they fed off of her at the same time, in a way that was hard to explain but great to watch. It was why she got such insane reactions every time she went out to the ring on one of the shows. He laughed again as he watched Ronda stand at the front of the stage and yell, "I can't hear you!" as she gestured for the fans to up the volume. They roared loudly in response.

"This is the best job in the world," she said to Seth as she walked over and joined him behind the table.

"You sure know how to fire them up," Seth said pleasantly as he stood his title belt up on the table in a position which would make it appear in the photos that fans would get with him. He was sitting to Ronda's right, which meant that he was the first one the fans would speak to before moving on to her. The member of the security team who was stationed at the bottom of the steps leading up to the stage stepped aside, allowing the first fan to walk up. Seth settled in for the long haul. These sessions were cool in a way, but could also get tedious. "Hey man, how are you?" he greeted the diminutive guy wearing a baseball jersey and a cap as they shook hands.

"Hey, Seth. Great to meet you. How are you?" the guy asked as he put a glossy photo of Seth and Ronda down on the table for him to sign.

"Good," Seth said as he signed. "Thanks for coming out."

There was another security team member on the stage, this one a woman. Her job was to take the fan's phones and take the photos that they wanted. Seth posed with a smile on his face and a clenched fist, and with that the first of many such brief encounters was complete. The guy moved on to Ronda. "Hey, Ronda," Seth heard. "Great to see you."

"Hey. Great to meet you. Thanks so much for coming," he heard Ronda reply. "What's your name?"

"Ben."

"Okay, Ben. Let me sign this for you." Seth glanced over as Ronda took her time in writing a personal message: _Great to meet you today Ben. Remember, we win and lose together. Ronda._ She then drew a heart and wrote _2015_ underneath it before finally signing. They posed for a picture together and Ronda asked the guy another small talk question before he finally walked off the stage.

"You need to be quicker than that, babe," Seth urged. "Look at all these people we've got to get to, and we're limited on time."

"Relax," Ronda smiled and gestured over to the side of the stage where the exit was. "Look at that guy. He's as happy as a pig in shit." Seth looked over and saw the guy looking at the signed picture, obviously reading Ronda's message again.

The subject was automatically dropped because the next fan in line had arrived at the table. For the next hour and a half, Seth had to admire the way that Ronda spoke to everyone she met as if it was her pleasure to meet them, rather than the other way around. He could tell that everyone, particularly the guys, left the stage buzzing and unable to wait to tell their friends, "Hey, guess what Ronda Rousey said to me when I met her?" Seth had found himself trying to elevate his game, but he was also very mindful of the time issue. There was a reason that things had to be kept brief, and that was evident when three more security staff walked onto the stage with the line of fans nowhere close to cleared.

"That's it, guys. Time to go," one of the security staff announced.

The fans were quick to catch on to what was happening, especially when Seth and Ronda stood up behind the table. Some of them began booing. Seth felt bad for the fans who had missed out, but it was what it was.

"No chance, I'm not leaving all of those people to go home disappointed," he heard Ronda say, causing him to sigh.

"Come on, babe, you know the drill. Time's up," Seth said, turning to face her.

"We've got plenty of time before we have to be at the arena, and this hour and a half thing is stupid. I'm not leaving," Ronda said defiantly.

One of the security detail attempted to take charge of the situation by trying to gently usher Ronda towards the steps as he said, "We're going, and we're going now."

"Don't fucking touch me," Ronda growled as she aggressively shrugged the guy off her and walked up to the front of the stage. "These security people are telling us to leave without meeting you guys," she announced to the crowd, loudly enough for them all to hear, drawing loud boos directed at the security staff. "That's bullshit," Ronda said, pointing at the head of the security team. The crowd roared their approval. "No one's leaving here without a picture," Ronda continued, facing the crowd once more. "Get your phones out. I'm coming out there and we're going to get some selfies." Another loud cheer filled the room.

"You're going to get in shit for this," Seth warned her as he walked over to her. "These security guys are doing a job. They're here to keep us safe, and we have to follow their orders at times like this." He could already see that he was wasting his time. When Ronda had decided to do something, there was no changing her mind, whether she was right or wrong.

"Fuck their orders," she said before hopping off the stage.

A chant of "Ronda!" broke out, but then turned to boos as Seth made his way off the stage with some of the security detail. Being booed really pissed him off because it was Ronda who had caused it. Her stunt had made her look great as far as the fans were concerned, but it had also made him look like an asshole when all he was doing was obeying orders. "Take me to the arena," he ordered one of the security guys who was walking alongside him. He had decided that he was going to do what he was supposed to do, when he was supposed to do it, and Ronda could deal with her consequences herself. Maybe that would teach her that she couldn't continue to defy authority whenever she thought it was best for her or the fans. He was starting to get seriously tired of it himself.

* * *

Anything relating to WWE or its stars and their presence on social media was ultimately Stephanie McMahon's responsibility. It was for that reason that it did not take long to come to her attention that Ronda Rousey was one of the top trends on Twitter. What was most odd about that fact was that it was lunch time, and not many people had even arrived at the arena yet. The fact that it was Ronda of all people caused an involuntarily feeling of irritation for Stephanie. Anything relating to Ronda seemed to have that effect on her lately. Out of curiosity, she loaded up some of the tweets which were being sent out with Ronda tagged in them. A lot of them were selfie-style pictures of Ronda, taken with people who were obviously fans.

A smile spread across Stephanie's face as she remembered that Seth and Ronda had been at a meet and greet session earlier in the day. "Please tell me you did what I think you did," Stephanie whispered at one of the images of Ronda on the phone's screen. She spent another few minutes looking at the pictures and reading the tweets, and, to her delight, it was true; Ronda Rousey had defied the security detail assigned to her and Seth and had gone out into the crowd to take pictures with them.

A few moments later, Stephanie had a runner standing in front of her. "When Ronda Rousey gets here, have her brought to me right away. She and I need to have a chat."

"Yes, ma'am."

The runner departed the office and Stephanie was left to her thoughts. This was exactly what she had been waiting for. Ronda Rousey and her bad attitude had been a problem for way too long. Stephanie was convinced that her husband had been played by Ronda and that she had essentially tricked her way onto the Raw roster. She shook her head slightly as she thought that not only had Hunter put Ronda on the roster when she didn't deserve it, he had only fined her ten grand for breaking script and winning a match against orders. There would be a bigger fine coming Ronda's way for today's latest lack of respect for authority, that was for sure.

* * *

When she walked into the arena, Ronda knew that she was going to take some heat for what she had done. She wasn't stupid, and she knew that Hunter would have some stern words for her over ignoring the orders of the security personnel, but it was what it was. Everyone at the meet and greet session had gone away happy and she had also seen that she was trending on Twitter, with a lot of people sending her messages about how awesome she was to have done what she had done. People had said things like "That's the difference between Ronda and everyone else at WWE," and other people had written about how great she had been to everyone that had spoken to her. Her popularity was soaring ever higher, and Hunter was a smart guy. He would know that this could only be a good thing in the long run, for both her and WWE. Popularity for her meant money for them.

The fact that Seth had cleared out of the convention centre and left her to it pissed her off a little, but she wasn't going to make an issue of it. When all was said and done, he had done the right thing and followed orders. Her plan now was to go find their locker room right away and make sure that things were okay between them. The plan didn't even get off the ground, however, as a runner came up to her before she got halfway down the first hallway. "Ronda? Stephanie McMahon wants a word with you, right away please."

"I need to put my case in my locker room," Ronda told him dismissively, sighing inwardly at the mention of Stephanie's name.

"She said right away," the runner insisted, stressing that it had been an order not a request.

"Fine," Ronda growled. "Where?"

"Follow me." They headed off along the hallway and, a couple of minutes later, they arrived at a closed wooden door. "Right in here," the runner said, before quickly making himself scarce.

Wasting no time, Ronda knocked, opened the door, and walked into the office. "You asked to see me?" she opened, not bothering with any kind of fake pleasantry. She realised that this wasn't Stephanie and Hunter's own office. The furniture was not expensive enough for one thing. This was someone else's office that Stephanie had taken over for the purpose of this meeting, so that it would happen in private. There was only one reason that she would have done that, and that was so that she could tear into Ronda without Hunter being there to intervene. "Come at me, bitch," Ronda thought as Stephanie stood from behind the cheap looking desk.

"Why is it that you find it impossible to do what you're told, Ronda?" Stephanie began, her voice cold but not aggressive.

In the back of her mind, Ronda heard a voice telling her that she should apologise for her actions, swallow her pride, and get out of the office as soon as she could, but that had never been the way that Ronda Rousey had lived her life, much as she wished it was at times. "I'm here before the call time, everyone left the session happy, and I'm trending on Twitter. What's your problem?" she saw the anger building up in Stephanie as she spoke.

" _You_ are the problem," Stephanie said, walking around the desk. "Your attitude is disgusting. You think you're something special, that you're better than everyone else around here and you don't have to live by the same rules as long as it makes the fans happy."

By this point, Stephanie was standing in front of Ronda, close enough to be intimidating to some people, but not to Ronda, who fired right back, "Still pissed off that I didn't lose your stupid handicap match, huh? Maybe you should look at your so-called creativity to find the _real_ problem."

"Who the hell do you think you are, talking to me like that?" Stephanie snarled, starting to lose control in the face of Ronda's insolence.

"Why are you in my face?" Ronda asked with a sneer. "You don't intimidate me, believe me. If Hunter has a problem with what I've done, I'll speak with him about it. He's the boss after all."

Stephanie totally lost it, screaming right in Ronda's face. "You will not speak to me disrespectfully like that! _I_ am your boss and you respect me as such!"

Despite any number of things that she could have said to push Stephanie's buttons even further, Ronda heard the voice in her head again and realised that she would only land herself in deeper hot water with Hunter, the real boss, if she let this thing go any further. She settled for imagining herself beating the hell out of Stephanie as she backed down. "Alright, you can stop screaming. I'm sorry, okay? I don't accept that what I did was wrong. Every one of those fans left that convention centre happy today, and I'm proud of that. You're going to punish me for defying the security guys. You don't have to punish me for it, but you're going to. I know that."

"You're damn right I am," Stephanie huffed. "You're going to be fined fifty grand for what happened today, and take this as a final warning about your attitude. You might think that you're something special because the fans love you and you draw money, but I have news for you. That doesn't mean you're bulletproof. I'll tell you in plain English: Improve your attitude and do it fast if you want to keep your job. You only have a one year contract, and we're under no obligation to extend it. Don't forget that." She gestured to the door. "You can get out now."

Ronda left the office and closed the door behind her. As she walked along the hallway, she felt a different kind of anger rising inside of her; anger at herself. The voice in her head began to chirp away at her once more, telling her that she was the one in the wrong here, not Stephanie. The voice was right. "You're doing it again," she mumbled to herself, thinking about all of the jobs that her confrontational attitude had cost her in the past. She stopped walking and closed her eyes as she took in a deep breath and let it out. She knew what she had to do. "God damn it," she growled before turning around and heading back towards the office. When she got there, Stephanie was just walking out of the door. Ronda saw the surprise on Stephanie's face that her tone of voice caused when she spoke. "Stephanie, can we go back inside? Please?"

Stephanie's head cocked to one side slightly for a moment as she looked at Ronda, looking like she was wondering if this was indeed Ronda standing in front of her or someone else who looked like her. "Okay," she agreed, eyes narrowing slightly in confusion. The two women walked back into the office and Stephanie closed the door. "What is it?" she asked. She certainly didn't expect the torrent of emotion which was to come next.

Ronda shifted awkwardly on her feet and looked down at the floor as she began to speak in awkward, sort sentences. "I'm sorry, Stephanie. I really am. I know I shouldn't do the crazy things that I do, and that I shouldn't speak to you like that, either. I just, I can't help myself. I've always been like this. Every job I've had I've ended up losing because I clash with the people I work for and I don't follow orders. I don't want to do this stuff, but it just happens. I just can't seem to help it. Like today, I knew that I shouldn't have defied the security guys like I did. Seth even told me not to do it, but I still did it. Then I come in here and give you a bunch of attitude. You're right to cut loose at me and to fine me. But what you're not right about? You're not right about me playing Hunter to get this job. I never did that. I came here in good faith as a referee. When I signed for WWE, I never thought that I would be able to wrestle or anything like that again. You know why? Because I broke my neck, God damn it. I broke my neck and I nearly paralyzed myself. I was so scared that I might hurt myself again, even though I was cleared by the doctors to do things like I'm doing now. Thankfully, I met Seth and he helped me to get past it, and then Hunter was good enough to give me this job because he saw how good I could be. I was so lucky to get the job and I love it. I love it so much and I don't want to lose it." By this point, she had tears in her eyes, but she forced herself to look Stephanie in the eye. Her voice broke as she continued, "I _want_ this job. I _want_ to be the best. I didn't play you Stephanie. I didn't play your husband. I didn't."

As she had listened to the outburst of raw emotion, Stephanie had felt stunned. She believed what Ronda said about her neck injury and how she had been struggling with the mental trauma it had caused her. The emotion in her voice and, more importantly, in her eyes couldn't be faked that well. The fact remained that Ronda had been pushed too fast, but that was not really her fault. She could hardly have been expected to turn down the opportunity to join the Raw roster when it was offered to her. As for the attitude problems, it was clear that she was a troubled woman, and it was also clear that deep down, she knew it.

Stephanie was left in a tough spot as she tried to think about what to say in reply, and what to do with Ronda in the long term. Only minutes before, she had been screaming in Ronda's face, but now a different type of management was required. Over the years, she had seen her father deal with many people who were difficult to manage for various reasons. It was hardly a rarity in the wrestling business. Now was Stephanie's turn to try to do it for herself. Rather than Ronda being someone who needed to be gotten rid of, she could actually be an opportunity for Stephanie to show what she could do as a boss. Leading a company the size of WWE was not as simple as screaming at everyone until they did what you wanted. No, there were other ways to succeed. If Ronda really meant what she said about wanting to change her destructive and disrespectful attitude, she needed to be given a chance to prove it.

"Wipe your eyes Ronda," Stephanie began, trying to calm down her employee. "You can't keep going around doing whatever the hell you want and mouthing off at me and others, but I hear what you're saying. If you really mean it, and you really do want to keep this job, then we can't have things like what happened today, or that night when you broke script, happen again. You need to get in line, Ronda. Having said that, and having heard what you said about your past jobs, I'll do what I can to help you. You can be one of the biggest stars we've seen in this business." She pointed at the office wall, but she was clearly referring to the arena. "Out there, you have it all. You're a great wrestler and you have the rarest kind of connection with the fans, but back here you've got a lot of improving to do." She paused again before making a final decision about the next thing she had to say. "Also, I need to apologise. You're not the only one who's been unprofessional and disrespectful here. I see that I was wrong to accuse you of playing us in order to bypass the developmental process and NXT, so for that I apologise."

Ronda nodded her acceptance of the apology with a hint of a smile, realizing that it was a big step forward. "So, what happens now?"

"What happens now is I have to tell Hunter what we discussed here, and you should probably tell Seth about it too. I know Hunter will be pleased to learn that we've managed to work this thing out and that you've promised that this wild stuff will stop. If you still find yourself struggling for any reason, or thinking that you might do something stupid, you can always come to one of us and we will talk it over with you and do our best to help you. We take care of our employees here, Ronda, despite some of the bullshit you might hear from certain people."

"Thank you," Ronda said. She looked down at the floor before mumbling, "Seth's pissed at me. He didn't like what I did earlier. We kind of rushed into this thing and he doesn't really know me all that well. He doesn't understand why I do the stupid things that I do. Hell, _I_ don't even understand why I do them. They just happen at the time and... I don't know." She shook her head in frustration.

"He loves you, Ronda," Stephanie said as she opened the office door. "Anyone who sees the two of you together can see that you love each other. Come on, let's get back to it."

Ronda followed Stephanie out of the office. "Thank you for listening to me. I know I sound stupid, or crazy, but like I said, I don't know why I do some of the things I do. I'm going to try my best not to let it happen again."

"Again, come find Hunter or myself if you need to talk about something." With that and a reassuring smile, Stephanie headed off along the hallway in the opposite direction to Ronda, feeling a lot better about Ronda and also about herself. Showing someone understanding and kindness in order to get the best out of them was more satisfying than getting there by shouting at them. A minute later, she walked back into the office which she shared with her husband. When she walked in, she greeted him with a smile. "Hey, honey. Wait until you hear about the conversation that I just had."

* * *

 _ **Monday Night Raw 27th April 2015**_

Following a video package to recap the cage match at Extreme Rules, Sarita Lopez was shown in her locker room, apparently furious, in the process of reading the riot act to her two teammates. "I mean, we didn't just put one of you in that cage match, we put you _both_ in it! Both of you! You had one job to do!" she screamed in Anna's face before moving on to Alex. " _One job_! All you had to do was make sure that one of you won that stupid Money in the Bank briefcase!"

"You saw what happened, they ganged up on us," Alex reminded Sarita.

"They ganged up on us," Sarita whined, mocking her. "I suggest you two idiots remember how exactly you got promoted to the Raw roster. You owe JBL, and, more importantly, you owe me. You failed in what I told you to do, and that's not acceptable."

Anna looked angry, but she assured Sarita, "We know what to do tonight. Everything will go according to plan."

Sarita looked down at the shorter woman, her voice quiet but threatening as their noses almost touched. "That damn well better be what happens, or you'll regret it." She returned her attention to Alex and spoke to her in the same manner. "Both of you." With that, Sarita walked away, leaving Anna and Alex looking angrily after her.

"I thought those guys were teammates," Cole mumbled.

Later in the show, following a video package to recap the Extreme Rules cage match, Renee Young was shown, ready to give an interview. "Please welcome, Sarita Lopez." The crowd booed loudly as the shot panned out to reveal Sarita. "Sarita, we saw what looked like a heated exchange earlier tonight between you and your teammates, Anna Hollenbeck and Alexis Styles. We've never gotten an insight from any of you as to what your relationship is?"

Sarita looked insulted by the question. "An insight into our relationship?" she asked, sarcastically. "There is no _relationship._ Those two were brought in to do _what_ I tell them to do, _when_ I tell them to do it."

"It almost sounds like you're hiding behind Anna and Alex," Renee ventured.

"Hiding behind them? I'm the Divas Champion," Sarita reminded Renee, holding the title belt in her face as she did so. "I'm the most dominant woman in the WWE."

Renee moved on. "You're not concerned about the fact that you owe Nikki Bella a one on one rematch? Or that you owe Ronda Rousey a one on one rematch? Or that Brie Bella has a Money in the Bank contract that she can cash in at any time? I'm sure each of those women could claim to be more dominant than you."

"You don't think I'm dominant, Renee? I'll prove it to you." Before Renee could react Sarita had caught her with a right hand and knocked her down. The crowd booed as Sarita began to stomp the fallen and defenseless Renee.

"Come on!" Cole pleaded. "Renee Young isn't a wrestler! Stop that!"

Sarita stopped attacking Renee and glanced off to her right before running off along the hallway. When they saw the reason for it, the crowd cheered loudly. Ronda Rousey came running past Renee, who lay crumpled up on the floor, and chased after Sarita, who had already covered half of the length of the hallway in a full sprint.

"Look at Lopez running from Rousey," Booker T said, as if the sight amused him.

Sarita was shown in a different hallway now, running down it and around the corner at the end. Cole said, "I hope Ronda catches up to her and kicks her..."

"Careful," Saxton cut in. At that moment, Ronda reached the corner that Sarita had disappeared around, but as she tried to turn the corner herself, she was met by a clothesline from Anna Hollenbeck. Alex appeared also and the two began beating Ronda down.

"Damn it!" Cole exclaimed. "Those two again, going to work on Ronda."

The beating lasted for several moments before Sarita reappeared, holding a steel chair. She delivered a kick to the side of Ronda's head, which seemed to almost knock her out. "Get that crap off her knee," Sarita barked at Alex, who began unwrapping the bandaging on Ronda's injured knee.

When the bandaging had been removed and tossed aside, Sarita raised the steel chair high above her head. "Not this again! No!" Cole cried out, but Sarita smashed the chair down on Ronda's knee, as she had done when she had first inflicted the injury.

Ronda rolled around on the concrete floor, holding her knee and screaming in agony as her three attackers walked calmly away. "Someone needs to do something about this," Booker moaned. "Sarita Lopez is out of control."


	8. Chapter 8

"Well, this is a good sign," Roman smiled as he approached the table that Seth and Ronda were sitting at in the hotel's restaurant. He set his breakfast tray on the table and sat down next to Ronda. "I was fearing the worst when I didn't see you in the gym this morning," he said to her.

"Yeah, I was, uh... We were..." Ronda stuttered awkwardly, grinning.

"Say no more," Roman laughed. It was hardly a surprise that Ronda had chosen sex over an early morning workout.

Dean walked over next and took the one remaining seat at the table, next to Seth. "Morning," he greeted Seth and Ronda. "Everything okay with you guys?"

Both he and Roman had listened to Seth the previous night backstage at Raw as he had explained how Ronda's attitude and almost total lack of respect for authority and the way that things worked at WWE was starting to frustrate him. What had happened at the meet and greet session had pissed Seth off more and more the more he thought about it, until his two brothers had managed to calm him down.

Predictably, it had been Roman who had been the first one to bring a calmer head to the discussion, saying that yes, Ronda was wrong to act the way that she did, but it was important to look at it from her point of view and to try to understand, rather than just getting mad at her. Roman had pointed out that Ronda had been thrown right in at the deep end with WWE, going from being a referee to arguably the most popular Diva ever almost overnight. She had not worked her way up through NXT and then broken on to the main roster in a minor role, before hitting the big time. She had suddenly found herself with millions of fans around the world, and she was struggling to deal with it the way she should. His opinion was that Ronda believed that it was her job to make the fans happy, to make them get behind her, so that she could continue to ride the huge wave of popularity and continue to get the incredible reactions that she was getting from the crowds at WWE events. The logic behind that at least was sound, she was just not going about it the right way.

Seth had come away from the talk with Roman and Dean feeling guilty and feeling that, rather than getting mad at his girlfriend for the way that she was acting, he should have been the one to explain the things that Roman was explaining. If only he could think the way that Roman did at times then life would be so much easier. Still, after the show, Seth and Ronda had returned to their hotel and had talked over a meal. Ronda had told him about her somewhat surprising conversation with Stephanie McMahon, and her willingness to improve the way that she was acting of late. Pretty soon, the fact that he had been so annoyed had seemed stupid to Seth, and he had pushed it aside, enjoying Ronda's company as usual, and was glad that things were back on track.

"Yeah, we're good," Seth smiled, answering Dean's question as Dean started attacking his breakfast.

Seth and Ronda had already finished eating, but they still had a cup of coffee each to get through. Without even thinking about it, they had decided that they wouldn't leave until Roman and Dean were done eating. Therefore, all four chatted away happily for the next twenty minutes until Roman and Dean were finished with their meals.

"I suppose I'd better hit the fucking gym," Dean moaned, before letting out a loud belch.

"You're an animal," Ronda sighed, shaking her head.

"Your breath smells of spunk," Dean hit back childishly, grinning.

"It does not!" Ronda exclaimed, on the defensive by instinct. She and Seth both blushed as Dean and Roman began laughing at their expense.

Dean turned to face the man beside him, and made sure to wear an expression that conveyed great interest in the answer to the question that he was about to ask. "So, you got a blowjob this morning, bro?"

"Fuck off, you idiot," Seth giggled. "We don't all sit in our rooms jerking off."

Dean chuckled again. "Raw last night, remember. Renee's _still_ up there in my room, too tired to come down yet. Why do you think that might be?"

"Do we _have_ to have this kind of conversation at the table?" Ronda asked, cringing.

"Sorry, mom," Dean said, trying to sound like a little kid. "Can I go outside and play now?"

"No," Ronda said, standing up from the table. "You can get to the gym with us and put the mitts on for me."

Dean knew that she meant that she wanted help to practice her boxing, but he was not done with the sarcasm yet. "Yes, boss," he quipped as he also stood up.

"Ever get the feeling that you know what it must be like to be a school teacher?" Seth asked Roman, smiling broadly.

"Quite often, around you guys," Roman confirmed. As they all left the restaurant, Roman trailed behind, which meant that no one saw the happy smile on his face. His extended family was back together and happy, just the way that it should be.

* * *

 _ **Monday Night Raw 4th May 2015**_

To sell the attack on Ronda's knee which had taken place the week before, Ronda was not booked to appear on the show. Her rivalry with Sarita Lopez and her teammates was covered with a short video package, recapping the events on Raw the previous week with Sarita beating down Renee Young and then the underhanded attack on Ronda. The video package played as Sarita made her way to the ring to win a quick crush victory over Summer Rae. Sarita also had an altercation with Lillian Garcia, which involved Lillian being pushed a couple of times by the Divas champion, causing Michael Cole to complain again about Sarita being out of control.

* * *

 _ **Monday Night Raw 11th May 2015**_

When JBL's theme music and Sarita's entrance video played to kick off the final hour of Raw, the crowd booed quite loudly in response. Of late, the Divas matches and segments were getting some of the best responses from the crowds, showing what could really be achieved if Divas actually were given a chance.

Sarita, Anna and Alex made their usual long, drawn-out entrance, including the white limo pulling into the arena. For some reason, the crew at ringside had failed to fix the ring steps properly following someone being rammed into them during the previous match and Sarita improvised, using this to highlight how her character really felt about her so called teammates. "Get those stupid steps put back together, now!" she barked at Anna and Alex, refusing to climb into the ring until it had been done. The two underlings hurried to obey the command.

When the task was completed, Sarita walked up the steps and into the ring. After posing by holding the Divas title in the air, drawing more boos from the crowd, she walked over to Lillian and snatched the microphone from her hand.

"I've got some great news, everybody!" she announced, much too enthusiastically for it to be genuine. "I'm going to put my Divas title on the line. Right here, right now!"

"What?" Michael Cole asked in surprise.

Sarita continued, "The truth of it is that I'm damn sick and tired of hearing people say to me 'You owe Ronda Rousey a rematch.'" She impersonated the voice of a simpleton, drawing more heat from the crowd. "So, here it is, Ronda's rematch. I've spoken to JBL and he made the match. Ronda, get your ass out here and face me. I'm here, the title is here, come and get it."

"Uh, Ronda Rousey has a knee injury," Cole pointed out. "I don't think she's even here tonight. What is Lopez trying to pull?"

Sarita stood in the centre of the ring with her title belt over her shoulder and gestured towards the entrance as if wondering if Ronda was going to bother to come out. The crowd began to chant Ronda's name, but there was no sign of her.

Pretending to sigh in disappointment, Sarita spoke again. "Oh well, Ronda's obviously too scared to come out here and face me."

Booker T laughed. "Ronda Rousey ain't scared of Sarita Lopez, I can tell you that."

Sarita walked over to Lillian. "Okay Lillian, what you're going to do is announce that Ronda has chosen to forfeit her rematch. You're going to tell all of these idiots who like Ronda so much that she goes to the back of line and has to work her way back up before she even thinks about getting a shot at me or my title." She handed the microphone back over to Lillian as the crowd booed once more, angered by the travesty which was about to take place.

Lillian raised the microphone to speak but hesitated for a moment and then decided, "No, I'm not going to do that."

Angrily, Sarita snatched the microphone back again and backed Lillian into the corner of the ring, menacing her. "Make the announcement that I told you to make, _now_!" she demanded, slamming the microphone in Lillian's chest.

"No," Lillian said, even more defiantly this time, bringing a cheer from the crowd.

Sarita stood there, looking like she was trying to find some more patience from somewhere, and failing. After a moment, she theatrically handed her title belt over to Anna, the implication being that Lillian was about to receive a beating similar to the one Renee had received two weeks earlier.

"Now wait a minute," Cole yelped when the realisation dawned on him as well. "Don't you even think about touching her!"

"Lillian would have been better off doing as she was told," Byron Saxton said.

Lillian held her hands up defensively and began trying to plead her way out of the situation that she had created for herself, but it was no use. Sarita grabbed Lillian by the hair and dragged her into the centre of the ring.

At that moment some familiar entrance music played, bringing a muted cheer from the crowd. "Wait!" Cole yelled. "That's... That's Stephanie McMahon's music!" Stephanie marched quickly out onto the stage and down the ramp. "Stephanie McMahon is back! We haven't seen her since Wrestlemania!"

The cheering from the crowd increased as they picked up on the fact that Stephanie was coming out to deal with Sarita, rather than to take her side. Sarita had let Lillian go, and the ring announcer had fled the ring as quickly as she could. As Stephanie entered the ring, Sarita stood there, looking at her as if she had no right to be interrupting.

"Oh my," Booker said gleefully, looking forward to what might happen next.

Stephanie picked up the microphone which Lillian had dropped to the mat. Getting in Sarita's face, she growled, "Who the hell do you think you are?" The crowd cheered loudly.

Although she did not have a microphone, Sarita could be heard saying, "I'm the Divas champion, that's who the hell I am," as she grabbed the belt back from Alex and held it in Stephanie's face.

"Yeah, you're the champion alright," Stephanie said, aggressively. "Maybe you need a reminder about how things work around here. Get in the back, now!"

Anna had fetched a second microphone and handed it to Sarita. "Are you threatening me, Stephanie?" Sarita asked, saying the name very disrespectfully. Sarita seemed to think for a couple of seconds before continuing. "Seeing as you want to come out here throwing your weight around, and trying to issue reminders, and since I'm trying to put my Divas title on the line, why don't you step up, Stephanie? Huh? Or are you all mouth?"

"I said get in the back, _now_!" Stephanie raged.

Sarita's only response was the ultimate sign of disrespect: she spat in Stephanie's face, the saliva running down the older woman's right cheek. With that, Sarita turned and made to walk out of the ring, but Stephanie had totally lost it, and with the crowd roaring her on, she took Sarita down from behind and began pounding away on her. Seeing this, the referee ordered the bell to be sounded.

"What the hell?" Cole asked. "We've got a Divas title match going on out here, between Sarita Lopez and Stephanie McMahon, who is wearing a business suit!" He was already partially wrong, as Stephanie had just hurled her black jacket out of the ring.

Anna and Alex had bailed out of the ring without attempting to help Sarita, but even without assistance, Sarita soon got the upper hand in the impromptu match and the contest turned into a beating, with the champion taking her time and making Stephanie suffer.

After five minutes of this, Stephanie managed to fight back following Sarita missing an elbow drop from the top rope. Stephanie and Sarita got to their feet at the same time and Stephanie kicked Sarita in the stomach and connected with a Pedigree, using up the last of what she had to give. Both women were down. This was when Anna and Alex decided to act, both climbing into the ring, but before they could do anything to Stephanie, Nikki and Brie Bella slid into the ring, as if appearing from nowhere, drawing another loud reaction from the crowd.

"We've got the Bellas out here now," Cole announced. "Nikki and Brie, going to to town on Anna and Alex." The four women, none of whom were not supposed to be in the ring, battled away for a few moments before they all ended up on the outside. The crowd was cheering Nikki and Brie on loudly as the referee also left the ring to try to break up the chaotic battle.

That was when the roof almost came off the arena. Ronda's music hit and everyone went crazy. "Wait!" Cole screamed as Ronda jogged down the ramp, limping on her bad knee. "Ronda Rousey is here!"

"No!" Saxton screamed pathetically. "Sarita! Look out!"

As Ronda rolled under the bottom rope, Sarita had just staggered to her feet in the centre of the ring. Ronda sprinted at her and almost took her head off with possibly the hardest clothesline that she had ever delivered.

"Sarita Lopez is out cold!" Cole yelled. "Wait a minute! Ronda Rousey has got Stephanie McMahon! She's putting her on top of Sarita!"

Ronda bailed from the ring as the referee re-entered on the opposite side and saw that there was a pin in progress.

"The title's on the line!" Saxton panicked.

The crowd counted along with the pin, clearly still not believing that Stephanie was going to win.

"One!"

"Two!"

"Three!"

The crowd exploded as Ronda's music played, rather than Stephanie's. Ronda was shown standing on the stage, laughing at what she had just caused to happen.

Cole yelled, "Stephanie McMahon! Stephanie McMahon won the Divas title! Ronda Rousey just cost her arch rival Sarita Lopez the Divas title!"

"Stephanie McMahon is the Divas champion?" Saxton yelped, as if the idea was beyond ludicrous.

"Stephanie McMahon is the Divas champion," Booker confirmed as Ronda walked off the stage.

Having taken out Anna and Alex, Nikki and Brie were now in the ring, helping the almost lifeless Stephanie to her feet and then supporting her from either side as they tried to leave the ring. Brie was holding onto the title belt for the new champion.

Lillian Garcia's satisfaction was evident as she announced, "Your winner, and he new WWE Divas champion, Stephanie McMahon!"


	9. Chapter 9

_**Payback 2015**_

Michael Cole welcomed everyone to the show following the opening promo and pyro display. Before he could even finish his introduction, Stephanie McMahon's music hit, drawing a muted cheer from the fans, almost as if they wanted to cheer her but found it difficult to actually do it given how long they had hated her for.

"Here comes Stephanie McMahon," Cole announced as she walked towards the ring, dressed in an expensive black suit with the jacket buttoned up. "I still can't really believe that this past week on Raw, thanks to Ronda Rousey, the returning Stephanie McMahon became the WWE Divas champion. Guys, we can only assume that Stephanie is going to come out here later tonight and defend her Divas title against Sarita Lopez. JBL confirmed earlier this week that Sarita has demanded the rematch she is entitled to, and will definitely be involved in a Divas title match here tonight at Payback. We know that Lopez has been beside herself with rage all week, but in my opinion it's not really fair that she gets the first rematch. We know that Ronda Rousey is owed a one on one title rematch, and we know that Nikki Bella is owed a one on one title rematch as well."

"The Divas division really is a mess," Saxton moaned. "And you know who I blame? Ronda Rousey. This is all her fault."

"How on Earth do you figure that?" Lawler asked. "It's Lopez and her so called teammates that have reduced everything to chaos around here. It was a joke that Sarita was even the champion to start with."

By this point, Stephanie was climbing the ring steps. She stepped through the ropes into the ring and then opened her suit jacket to reveal that she was actually wearing her Divas title, drawing a cheer from the crowd as Stephanie smiled. "Stephanie McMahon is the Divas champion," Cole said, as if still trying to convince himself of the fact.

"Welcome to WWE Payback!" Stephanie began loudly, drawing another cheer. "Payback. A rather appropriate name for the event tonight, I think you'll agree. Payback. That's definitely what Ronda Rousey got on Sarita Lopez last week on Raw. You see, when Sarita spat in my face I lost control of myself and attacked her, I didn't do it with the intention of competing in a match, and certainly not with the intention of winning the Divas title. No, I did it because I wanted to kick Sarita's ass, which I have to admit, I wasn't doing a very good job of. But, thanks to Ronda Rousey, I walked out of that match as the WWE Divas champion." She paused and looked proudly at the belt which she held in her left hand, before placing it over her shoulder.

"Thanks for the history lesson," Saxton whined. "It was bad enough seeing it the first time."

"Now," Stephanie continued, "I'm very proud have won the Divas title, but I make no claim to be a wrestler. I've only competed twice in the past ten years. So, with that in mind, I'm out here right now to announce that I am relinquishing the Divas title." The crowd booed in disappointment. "I can also announce that the winner of tonight's Divas match will be the new and _undisputed_ WWE Divas champion. I have decided that..."

At that moment Ronda Rousey's music played, interrupting Stephanie, and the crowd went wild.

"Listen to this ovation for Ronda Rousey," Cole yelled as Ronda walked down the ramp as quickly as she could with her heavily bandaged knee, microphone in hand.

"I'm getting tired of Rousey coming out here when she has no business doing so," Saxton moaned.

"I think this is about to get interesting real quick," Lawler said as Ronda got in the ring.

"I'm certainly no fan of The Authority, so I never thought I'd say this," Ronda began, pacing around the ring as she addressed Stephanie. "But, with the way JBL has been running this place for the past couple of months, it's kind of good to see you back out here, you crazy bitch."

"I think that was some kind of compliment," Cole laughed as the crowd cheered loudly.

"Now, I was listening in the back, and what I heard you say was that you are relinquishing the Divas title, and taking yourself out of the match later tonight."

"That's right," Stephanie confirmed.

Ronda continued pacing the ring. "What I'm out here to propose to you is, that what I'll do, is take your place in that Divas title match and take back what's mine, that title belt you've got right there on your shoulder." The crowd roared their approval of that idea.

"Ronda, nothing would please me more than to set you loose on Sarita Lopez, believe me. I know that's what you want, and I certainly know that it's what they want." Stephanie gestured at the fans who began to chant Ronda's name. The chant quickly spread through the area, until it reached an almost deafening volume.

"I've never seen anything like this in my life," Lawler said, even though it was blatantly not true. "I know I'd love to see Ronda get her hands on Sarita tonight."

When the chant died down, Stephanie continued. "You and I both know that I can't make that match tonight, Ronda. You have a knee injury, and you're not cleared to compete."

The crowd booed loudly, and then the boos intensified even more as JBL's theme music played, with Sarita's entrance video.

"Now we've got Sarita Lopez coming out here, the _former_ Divas champion," Cole announced.

"Could you not sound so biased?" Saxton asked, annoyed.

Sarita walked into the arena with Anna and Alex trailing behind. The trio stopped half way to the ring and made no attempt to come any closer. "You're damn right you're not going to make that match," Sarita barked at Stephanie. "The two of you _stole my_ Divas title from me last Monday on Raw."

"As if Lopez didn't steal it from Rousey to begin with," Cole snorted in disgust.

Sarita continued addressing Stephanie, "What you're going to do is come out here later on tonight, and you're going to _give_ me back my title, along with an apology."

The crowd roared once more as May Devany's music played.

"Now what's going on?" Saxton demanded as May walked out and stood on the stage.

"I'll keep this short and sweet, just like me," May said, grinning as she addressed Sarita. "Sarita, you're not going to face Ronda tonight, and you're damn sure not going to get the title given to you. You're going to have to win it, against me." The crowd roared their approval of their second favourite Diva getting her first title opportunity. "My advice to you is, stop running your mouth out here and go get ready. I know I will be."

Sarita was shown looking furious at having to compete, as she ranted at Anna and Alex while May walked back through the curtain, having delivered her simple message.

In the ring Ronda turned to Stephanie. "Are you in charge of this place or not? I want my title match, damn it!"

"You'll get your chance, Ronda. You'll get it. But, you've got to heal your knee first. So, why don't we do this: Ronda, you'll get your chance to face the winner of the Divas title match later tonight. That Divas title match will be between May Devany, and you Sarita Lopez, and I'm not rewarding you, believe me. I hope to see May kick your ass just as badly as I know Ronda would do if she was able to go tonight." The crowd roared at that.

Sarita snorted derisively. "Fine, I'll come out here tonight and I'll beat May Devany, but you know what? Screw you, Stephanie!" The crowd booed.

"Oh, screw me?" Stephanie asked, faking surprise. "No, Sarita, screw you. Because I've just decided that there's going to be a special referee in the Divas title match later tonight," without pausing Stephanie turned to face Ronda, voice rising in anger at the disrespect Sarita had shown, "And her name is Ronda Rousey!"

The crowd erupted and Sarita was shown going wild with rage.

"My God what an announcement," Cole yelled. "Ronda Rousey is going to be the special referee in the Divas title match. I can't believe it. And look at Sarita Lopez. She's beside herself."

"This isn't fair at all," Saxton griped as in the ring Ronda began to loosen up her right shoulder, as she would when preparing to deliver her clothesline finisher. The noise from the crowd rose and then Ronda threw an imaginary clothesline in Sarita's direction. "Boom!" Everyone yelled in unison. Ronda then pointed at Sarita as her music began to play.

"Guys, there's no way that Sarita's walking out of here tonight with that title," Lawler said. "It's just not happening. Stephanie McMahon just made sure of it."

* * *

Prior to the promo for the Divas title match, Sarita, Anna and Alex were shown in their locker room. Sarita had a very simple message to deliver. "The two of you had better make sure that I walk out of here with _my_ title, because if I don't? Your asses are going back to NXT faster than you can say 'yes, Sarita.' Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Sarita," the two women mumbled back, clearly absolutely hating having to do so.

"Good," the former champion said smugly, before walking out of the shot.

Anna and Alex looked at each other for a moment before Alex mumbled, "To hell with her. I'd rather be on NXT if this is how it's going to be."

"Right," Anna agreed. "Let's get out of here." They too walked out of the shot.

Cole laughed. "Good job, Sarita. You just lost yourself your backup."

* * *

To the obvious surprise and dissatisfaction of the fans, Ronda had called the Divas title match right down the middle for nearly ten minutes, counting near falls for both women. Sarita had taken control of the match and had spent the last couple of minutes with the upper hand, hitting May with several moves. But, May managed to block and then reverse a vertical suplex, gaining herself some momentum to mount a comeback. Sarita whipped May into the ropes, but when she came off, May attempted to deliver a cross body to the former champion. However, Sarita reacted very quickly and dropped flat to the mat, causing May to fly over her and instead collide with Ronda, sending her through the ropes and to the floor, taking an awkward looking bump on her injured knee in the process.

"Oh no," Cole said in surprise. "May took out Ronda. It looks like Ronda's in pain. She's hurt that bad knee again."

"That was accidental," Lawler hastened to clarify.

In the ring, May had made the mistake of looking through the ropes to try to check on Ronda, who was now writhing around on the floor, holding her knee and pounding the floor in agony with her other hand. When May turned around, Sarita kicked her in the stomach and got her in position to deliver her finishing move, a sit down powerbomb. However, when Sarita lifted May into the air, May managed to escape her grasp and drop to her feet behind her opponent. Before Sarita could even react, May delivered her signature move, which looked vaguely similar to Dolph Ziggler's Zig Zag, but was actually delivered as a kick to the back of the opponent's head.

"That's the Mayday!" Cole yelled as Sarita collapsed to the mat and the crowd cheered May on. May grabbed Sarita by her ankles and dragged her across the ring, into a very deliberate position in the centre. When this was done, she pointed above the turnbuckles in one corner of the ring, bringing the crowd to their feet as they roared her on, knowing what was coming next.

"Here we go," Lawler enthused. "May's going to fly!"

May jumped up to the top rope, rather than climbing, and got in position to deliver her finishing move. Camera's flashed throughout the area as May launched herself a truly improbable distance into the air, before crashing back down on Sarita's chest.

"Perfectly executed five star!" Cole yelled as May rolled around, holding her own stomach in pain. "Cover her, May!"

May crawled over to Sarita and made a cover, hooking her leg. The crowd began to count, but there was a very obvious problem.

"No referee," Lawler called out. "Ronda Rousey is still down on the outside."

The crowd booed loudly as two familiar figures ran to the ring. "Oh, give me a break," Cole moaned. "Here come Sarita's hired help, or whatever the hell they are. I thought they took off."

Anna and Alex slid into the ring and went to work on May, who tried valiantly, but futilely, to defend herself.

"Get someone out here and stop this!" Lawler yelled as the beat down continued for a full minute. Alex hauled May to her feet and set her up for Anna, who got her Killswitch finishing move. Alex was already dragging Sarita over towards May as Anna turned May over onto her back.

The fact that it was only now that referee Charles Robinson came running to the ring looked a little too convenient to be true, as Anna and Alex bailed from the ring and took off through the crowd, leaving Sarita on top of Alex in the ring.

"Oh, come on," Cole moaned in disgust. "Not this way."

"Come on you idiot, count!" Saxton urged as Robinson slid into the ring.

"This is not fair," Lawler protested. Almost no one in the crowd joined in with the count.

"One."

"Two."

"Three."

"Damn it!" Cole exclaimed. "Sarita Lopez is the Divas champion. This is pathetic."

"Two time Divas champion," Saxton clarified gleefully, as JBL's music began to play.

It took a moment for Sarita to get up and to have her hand raised by the referee, to a loud volley of boos and abuse from the crowd. Disrespectfully, she kicked May's limp body out of the ring to the floor in front of the commentary table and stood there, leaning over the ropes and gloating over her beaten opponent, with the title belt in her hand.

"Sarita Lopez is a repulsive human being," Cole said.

Unexpectedly, the crowd suddenly began to cheer loudly. "Sarita! Look out!" Saxton called out, seeing that Ronda was back in the ring and standing in the middle of it, looking like she wanted to murder Sarita.

Sensing what the reason for the sudden cheering might be, Sarita turned around in an attempt to defend herself, but it was already too late for that. Ronda was already running at her, and she delivered a devastating clothesline which sent Sarita for a loop before she came crashing down to the mat like a piece of wet cardboard. As with everything she did, the crowd cheered Ronda's actions loudly as she grabbed a microphone from Lillian Garcia.

"Your winner, Ronda Rousey!" she announced. Even though it was obviously not true, or even possible, the crowd went wild anyway as Ronda walked across the ring and then dropped under the bottom rope.

"I suppose you think that was funny, don't you Michael?" Saxton demanded. "Well laugh at this, Sarita's the Divas champion, and there's nothing you, Ronda Rousey, or anyone else can do about it."

Ronda had now almost reached the stage. Her music cut off abruptly, and then Brie Bella's music hit, causing another eruption from the crowd.

"Wait!" Cole yelled. "Here's someone who can definitely do something about it!"

Brie ran past Ronda as she headed to the ring with her Money in the Bank briefcase in hand and Nikki by her side. Brie and Nikki slid into the ring and Brie thrust her red briefcase into Charles Robinson's hands. The crowd were still cheering loudly as Robinson walked over to the corner of the ring with the briefcase and passed it through the ropes to Lillian Garcia, who then had an announcement to make.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Brie Bella is cashing in her Money in the Bank briefcase for the WWE Divas championship!" The crowd roared once more.

"Brie's cashing in!" Cole yelled, close to losing control of himself completely. "Come on Brie! Do it for Daniel!"

The referee ordered for the bell to be sounded to start the match, but he made sure that Brie couldn't get to Sarita until the new champion was at least on her feet to have some kind of chance to defend herself. Brie had no intent to force the issue anyway, knowing that Sarita was a sitting duck thanks to the damage that Ronda's clothesline had done. Brie was standing in the centre of the ring, in position to run at Sarita and deliver her running knee finishing move, but out of the blue, Nikki grabbed her sister from behind, spun her around and knocked her lights out with a devastating forearm to the face.

"What the... That was blatant!" Cole yelped as the crowd howled in surprise and horror.

"What are you doing?" King shrieked. "That's your own sister."

Charles Robinson turned around, having already missed what Nikki had done. Sarita had also not seen it, but she saw Brie lying flat on her back on the mat and crawled over there.

"Don't let this happen, please," Cole said as Sarita collapsed on top of Brie. Nikki was already heading across the ring towards the timekeepers side of the ring to fetch the Divas title. This time no one could bring themselves to join in with the count.

One.

Two.

"Kick out, Brie!" Cole urged desperately.

Brie got her shoulder up at the last possible moment, bringing a thunderous reaction from the crowd.

"Yes! Yes! Brie is still in it!" Cole shouted.

Sarita was still in worse shape than Brie, and Brie struggled to her feet, only for Nikki to hit her right in the face with the Divas title. "What the hell are you doing?" Robinson could be heard yelling at her, but he didn't call for the disqualification that he should have done, clearly not wanting to waste Brie's Money in the Bank opportunity by throwing out the match. "Get out!" Robinson yelled, and Nikki was now more than happy to do so, looking at her fallen sister with pure hatred in the process.

"I don't believe this," Lawler mumbled as Sarita crawled over to Brie once more. This time the count was academic.

One.

Two.

Three.

The crowd groaned in disgust, repulsed by what they had just witnessed. "Lopez is still the champion," Cole choked out. "Why? Someone tell me why?"

Apparently this was too much, even for Saxton. "Nikki just cost her sister her Money in the Bank match. We all know what that meant to Brie. This is appalling."

"What kind of... What kind of animal is Nikki Bella?" Lawler asked as Sarita was handed her title belt by Robinson. She sat on the mat and held onto her belt like it was the most precious thing in the world.

"Sarita Lopez makes me physically sick," Lawler said, his voice hushed.

"Don't blame Sarita for this, blame that woman," Saxton said as Nikki was shown looking back at the ring from near the entrance with the same look of hatred on her face.

"Why Nikki, you miserable bitch?" Cole demanded bitterly.


	10. Chapter 10

For the past week there had been a strange feeling somewhere in the back of Seth's mind regarding his relationship with Ronda. Since her blatant disregard of authority at the meet and greet session the previous week, they had talked about it and had tried to put it behind them, but to Seth things just didn't feel quite the same. Given that their relationship was only a few months old, he knew that this was a bad sign. What he found himself doubting was whether they were right for each other. It seemed that over time, negative aspects of Ronda's personality were revealing themselves to him.

Selfishness was certainly not something that was a rarity in the wrestling business, and in some ways it could even be a good thing to have at times, but Seth had the feeling deep down inside of him that what mattered most in life to Ronda Rousey was Ronda Rousey, and that would always be the case. Her actions spoke louder than words in that regard. When they had eaten dinner together the previous night, following Payback, Ronda had complained bitterly about what she had been asked to do at the pay-per-view and had even said, "I might as well have stayed on as a fucking referee, if that's all they're going to have me do."

She had gone on to moan about the fact that her supposed knee injury had been written in the first place, saying that all it was doing was costing her the chance to wrestle. Seth had tried to be patient, and to yet again explain that she was being written and booked in this way so that it looked like she was fighting to overcome the odds which were always stacked against her. The conversation had irritated Seth to the point that he had changed his mind about treating himself to a dessert, keen to just leave the restaurant and head back to their room. It was true that he and Ronda had enjoyed some fantastic sex before going to sleep for the night, but Seth wanted more than sex from a relationship. He could pick up a girl in a bar in any city he went to if sex was all he desired.

Having just finished his Monday morning workout, Seth decided to go find Ronda and talk to her about how he felt. After all, he had told her when they first got together about the importance of not keeping emotions bottled up inside and talking when you had something that you needed to talk about. It was time for him to follow his own advice. As she had already done her customary ridiculously early morning workout with Roman, Ronda had said that she was going to relax by the hotel's pool for a while and soak up some rays while Seth was in the gym, so he headed out there to find her.

A couple of minutes later, when he walked outside to where the pool was, Seth saw that Ronda had company. Nikki Bella was just picking up her things and preparing to leave the sun lounger next to Ronda's. By the time he made his way over there, Nikki was just leaving. "Hey," she smiled warmly as she approached him.

"Hi, Nikki," Seth smiled back, congratulating himself on managing not to look at her tits as she walked past. It was quite an achievement, however, he had noticed as she was bending over to pick up her possessions that Nikki had a tattoo on her left buttock. _You learn something new every day,_ he thought.

"Hey. Good workout?" Ronda asked with a smile as Seth sat down on the now vacant sun lounger which Nikki had been using, facing Ronda, who remained lying down with her head turned towards him. She pushed her sunglasses up on to the top of her head.

"Yeah, it was good," Seth smiled back, trying to figure out how exactly to bring up what he wanted to talk about in such a way that it would not seem like he was trying to start a fight or have a dig at Ronda.

"Awesome. Hey, guess what?" Ronda grinned.

"What?" Seth asked, seeing that she was excited about whatever it was.

"My agent called. I'm going to be in a commercial," Ronda beamed.

"That's great," Seth smiled back, even as a thought dawned on him, causing him to sigh inwardly. "Wait. Your agent? This isn't anything to do with WWE, is it?"

"No," Ronda said, narrowing her eyes as if she found the question to be stupid in some way. "I'm going to be in an Adidas commercial. What does that have to do with WWE?"

"Really?" Seth asked, feeling his irritation rising a lot faster than he wanted it to. "You just can't help yourself can you? You don't think you should at least talk to Hunter about this before you accept it?"

"I already accepted it," Ronda said offhandedly. "Like I said, this isn't anything to do with WWE. I'll be filming it on my own time. You could at least be pleased for me. What's your problem lately?"

" _My_ problem?" Seth snapped. "The same as everyone else's problem; you going around like you're better than everyone else in WWE and don't have to follow the same rules, or even need to have the same common decency as the rest of us."

"Excuse me?" Ronda asked, eyes narrowing as she sat up on her sun lounger.

"You heard. How would you possibly not realise that you should at least talk to Hunter before accepting this thing? You didn't even think about it, did you? All you thought about was Ronda Rousey. You break script when it suits Ronda Rousey. You defy security when it suits Ronda Rousey. You mouth off at Stephanie when it suits Ronda Rousey, and it's all because you think that you're better than everyone else. Your ego is out of control, and frankly I'm tired of it."

Ronda shook her head in disbelief before mumbling, "Unbelievable." Her anger began to mount as she continued, "You're actually jealous, aren't you? You're as bad as most of the Divas. What kind of guy gets jealous of his girlfriend when she has success, rather than being pleased for her? You say you're tired of it? _I_ am tired of it. When I met you I thought you were an amazing guy. I'd never met anyone who seemed as kind and caring as you, yet now look at you. You're happy while I'm some lowly referee who's beneath you, but when I'm as big a star, if not bigger than you, you get jealous. That's it, isn't it?"

Seth laughed. "As big a star as me? Have you heard yourself? I'm not the one who's changed since we met. You are. You've turned into a fucking walking ego, and I'm done with it. I'm done."

Seth stood and made to walk away but Ronda jumped up too. "Wait. Seth, wait," she pleaded, realising that she had gone too far with what she had just said. Seth stopped and turned around, but it looked like he was doing so almost despite himself. "I'm sorry," Ronda said as she walked over to him and hugged him. "I didn't mean what I said. I don't mean to do any of this destructive stuff, it just happens. We talked about this last week, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember," Seth said, half-heartedly returning the hug. "I remember talking about it for a long time and offering you the best advice I could, and I remember saying that I didn't like the way you were acting. I remember saying that it's not the kind of thing that I like at all, and that you needed to stop it. I remember you promising that you would stop with this shit, but here we are a week later and we've got another example of it already."

"What are you saying?" Ronda asked quietly and hesitantly as she pulled away from Seth so that she could look him in the eye. "Are you breaking up with me?" she asked after a moment of silence from Seth.

"No," Seth said, after another moment, closing his eyes as he did so, which was not lost on Ronda, and told her that the other answer had been a real possibility. "I'm not breaking up with you, but you need to stop with this ego shit. You're not above the rules, and you're not better than anyone else at WWE. Get that into your head, before you ruin this relationship and your career."

"I will," Ronda assured him, hugging him once more and this time feeling the gesture being returned properly. "I really will. I don't want to lose you, Seth. I love you."

"I love you too," Seth said, even though he was still wondering if he had just made the right decision in ignoring the large part of him that had been telling him to break off the relationship right then and there.

Neither of them had noticed that Roman had walked out to the pool for a swim just before their argument had started, or that he had stood watching them from a distance. It hurt him as he watched his chosen brother and sister arguing, and he almost went over there to intervene. What had upset him the most was that it looked to him as though Seth had been laying into Ronda and had upset her. Roman had then watched as Ronda had hugged Seth twice, clearly attempting to show Seth that she loved him and to stop him from walking away from her. Even the fact that Seth had returned the second hug and then walked away hand in hand with Ronda had not done much to calm Roman down. He knew Seth's track record in relationships, his record of breaking things off after a few months, and even worse there was also his history of cheating. In the past, Roman had always had his brother's back, even when he had been in the wrong, but Ronda was not just Seth's girlfriend, she was also Roman's sister. As he slid into the pool, Roman knew exactly whose side he would come down on if Seth did anything to hurt Ronda as he had with some of his past girlfriends.

* * *

 ** _Monday Night Raw 18th May 2015_**

With the opening pyro display complete, the crowd cheered as the Raw theme music played and Michael Cole made his introductions. The Raw theme stopped playing and a moment later Ronda's music hit to a thunderous response from the crowd.

"Here comes Ronda Rousey, guys," Cole announced as Ronda walked out onto the stage, wearing a leather jacket and her official WWE t-shirt. "Listen to this ovation for the number one contender for the Divas title. Last night at Payback, Stephanie McMahon confirmed that Ronda would face the winner of the Divas title match, which ended up being Sarita Lopez. But guys, that's not all."

"No it isn't," Booker T joined in. "After the match, Brie Bella attempted to... No, she _did_ cash in her Money in the Bank contract on Lopez, but then Brie's own sister, Nikki, turned on her and cost her the match. I think I speak for all of us when I say I want to know why."

"Right," Saxton agreed. "I'm glad to see that Sarita Lopez got her title back, which was unfairly taken from her by Stephanie McMahon and Ronda Rousey, but there's no excuse for what Nikki Bella did last night. It was appalling."

Ronda was in the ring by this point, and her music faded out. "I'm someone who's better at fighting than I am at talking, so this will be brief," she began. "Last night, we found out..." She stopped herself abruptly and looked at a bunch of five or six guys a few rows back from ringside who had started to chant her name. Within seconds, everyone in the arena seemed to have joined in, and the chant became deafening.

"Listen to this, guys. Ronda has this crowd in the palm of her hand," Cole said.

Ronda waited for the chant to fade away before she continued. "Last night, we found out that the stage is set, at last. Ronda Rousey will meet Sarita Lopez, one on one, for the Divas title. Believe me, I've been looking forward to this every bit as much as you all have. Sarita, I know you're here and I know you're listening," Ronda said, looking directly at the camera. "Look into my eyes Sarita, and believe what I'm about to say to you. I'm going to take my title back from you, and it's not going to happen quickly. I'm going to take my time with you, and it's going to hurt." The crowd cheered this, keen to see exactly what Ronda had just described.

Ronda resumed pacing the ring. "Sarita, let me describe to you what it's going to be like when you step into this ring to go one on one with me, be it tonight, next week, or at the next pay-per-view. You'll be standing in this corner, with your bottom lip trembling, and a suspiciously warm liquid running down your legs."

The crowd cheered as Ronda walked over to the opposite corner of the ring. "And I will be in this corner, staring you right in the eye, and getting ready to knock your head clean off your shoulders with a clothesline the likes of which you've never felt in your life."

The crowd cheered again as Ronda walked into the centre of the ring. "The two of us will walk into the centre of the ring, just like this, and every single fan in the building will be doing exactly what they're doing right now. They'll be standing on their feet, and they'll all be chanting my name." Instantly, everyone in the crowd did just that, Ronda's name being roared throughout the arena once more.

"This is incredible," Cole said. "Can you imagine being Sarita Lopez in that situation?"

"I'd rather not," Booker laughed.

When the chant subsided, Ronda was about to speak again, but she didn't get the chance, as May Devany's theme music hit, drawing another huge cheer from the crowd, and stopping Ronda in her tracks as she snapped around to face the entrance.

"There's May Devany," Cole announced. "She appeared to have the Divas title won at one point last night, but Ronda Rousey, who was the special referee, was down on the outside at the time."

"Thanks to May," Saxton pointed out. "It was May who took Ronda out to begin with, and who can tell if Sarita would have kicked out of that five star or not? No one made a count."

"I'm more interested in what May's doing coming out here interrupting Ronda," Booker said as May rolled into the ring and took a microphone for herself. Ronda had not taken her eyes off of the diminutive woman the whole time.

"I'm sitting there in the back," May began, "And all I can hear is you out here, talking about how you're the number one contender and how you'll be the next one to face Sarita Lopez." She stopped pacing and looked Ronda in the eye, "I'm out here to tell you that I don't see it that way."

The crowd cheered loudly, but this cheer had a different characteristic to it, containing anticipation of the possible and unexpected fight between the two women more than anything else, as Ronda cocked her head slightly and stared back at May, who continued. "It's all well and good standing there with that stupid look on your face, but let me refresh your memory about what exactly happened last night. I had Sarita Lopez beat in the middle of the ring after a Five Star, but you weren't there to make the count. If you hadn't been stupid enough to get in the way so that I knocked you out of the ring with that cross body, you'd be talking about facing May Devany instead of Sarita Lopez. It's as simple as that."

"May's got a point," Cole said as the crowd cheered once more at what May had said, partly at the element of truth within the statement, but also at the confrontational tone that May was using to Ronda.

Ronda still stood with her eyes locked on May, but didn't make any attempt to respond. "You're still looking like you don't see things from my point of view," May said, staring right back at her. "So, I've got an idea. Take your little leather jacket off, and you and I can take care of business, right here, right now."

"Wow!" Cole exclaimed as the crowd roared even more loudly. "This really developed quickly."

"Are May and Ronda going to go at it?" Saxton asked, delighted by the prospect. May tossed her microphone out of the ring, and stood watching Ronda carefully. Ronda slowly looked around at the fans, who began to chant her name again.

"They're chanting her name," Booker said, "They want to see Ronda and May, and they want to see it right now."

Slowly, Ronda slipped out of her leather jacket, and made a great show of holding it out with one hand before dropping it to the mat, with the crowd loving every second of it. "They're going to go, right here and now!" Cole yelled.

At that moment, JBL's music hit, along with Sarita's entrance video, drawing an incredible volley of boos, which were in part caused by their hatred of Sarita, but also the fact that she had just prevented the physical confrontation which everyone wanted to see.

"What's she doing out here?" Cole groaned as Sarita walked out onto the stage, with her Divas title over her shoulder and a very fake looking smile on her face.

"Ladies, ladies," she pretended to chastise the two women in the ring, after her music and the boos had faded. "This is all so unnecessary. What you need to do is pay more attention when you're here in the back, because if you did, you would know exactly what the situation is as relates to the number one contendership for _my_ Divas title." Another volley of boos came at Sarita.

"You can boo me," she grinned at the crowd, "But you can't change the fact that I pinned May Devany _and_ Brie Bella right in the middle of the ring last night, can you?"

"Please," Cole snorted derisively.

Sarita continued. "What I was trying to say is that it has been decided that there will be a triple threat match to determine who the number one contender for my title will be."

"A triple threat match?" Cole demanded. "Decided by who?"

Sarita continued one more, "There are three people in WWE who I have problem with, and all three of you want a shot at me. Only one of you is going to get one. Therefore, next week on Raw, we will see a triple threat match between you, Ronda Rousey..." The crowd roared loudly and began to chant Ronda's name.

"Yeah, yeah," Sarita sighed before chanting Ronda's name herself, but pretending to sound like a simpleton as she did so, drawing more boos. "Ronda will be in the match, as will May Devany, and so will Brie Bella."

"Yes!" Cole exclaimed as the crowd cheered again. "Brie gets another chance; that's only fair. I can't wait for that match, but it's pretty obvious that this was put together by Lopez and JBL in order to soften up whoever wins the match."

"Either they want to fight Sarita Lopez or they don't," Saxton said. "Sarita's an honest, fighting champion."

Cole responded with a sarcastic laughing sound as in the ring, Ronda finally decided to say something. "May, I was all set to kick your ass, but how about this? Why don't you and I go up there and tear Sarita apart?"

With that, Ronda rolled quickly out of the ring and sprinted up the ramp, with May following close behind. Sarita reacted quickly and ran through the curtain to the back. When Ronda and May got backstage only a moment later, they were met by a large group of referees who prevented them from chasing after Sarita, who was long gone along the hallway.

"I've got to tell you guys," Booker said. "Whether it's Ronda Rousey, May Devany or Brie Bella, I have to think that Sarita Lopez has one hell of a beating coming her way, and I can't wait to see it happen."

* * *

Later in the show, following a commercial break, Nikki Bella was shown walking along a hallway, drawing a loud chorus of boos from the crowd as they watched on the big screen. "There's Nikki Bella," Cole said, making his contempt obvious. "What a disgusting, repulsive human being that woman is."

Booker joined in. "What she did last night? I've never seen anyone do anything that low in all my time in wrestling, and I've seen a lot of things. It doesn't matter what her reasons were, there's no possible justification for Nikki costing her own sister the Divas title after everything that's happened. She knew exactly what it meant to Brie to win that Money in the Bank, and what it would have meant to win the Divas title, and she turned on her."

Renee Young appeared in the shot. "Nikki? Nikki, I have to ask you, why did you do what you did last night? Why did you turn on Brie, your own sister?"

Nikki stopped walking and looked at Renee as if she didn't understand the question. "Sorry? Why did I turn on Brie? Think about it, Renee. Don't you think you should be asking Brie that question, rather than me? Ask Brie why she turned on me."

"What?" Renee asked, shaking her head slightly in confusion. "Ask Brie what?"

"Why she turned on me," Nikki spat, pure hatred on her face. "Everyone's going around making me out to be the one in the wrong, the one who turned on her own sister, and you know what? It makes me sick. I didn't turn on Brie. Brie turned on me!"

"What are you... What are you talking about?" Renee stammered, totally lost.

"Think back, Renee. Think back to Extreme Rules. I was in the best shape of my life. I'd never felt so good. I was dominating that cage match and I was going to win that Money in the Bank contract. I felt sure of it. But then what happened? Brie came out, and did she help me, like a sister should? Did she even help me fight the other Divas and then take me on one on one at the end to decide the winner? No. What did she do? She blind sided me and almost knocked me out with a running knee. She pinned me and eliminated me. My own sister did that to me, and did anyone say or do anything about it? Was anyone outraged? No!"

"That's why you attacked Brie last night?" Renee asked quietly, shocked.

"You know what Brie said to me in that cage, Renee, after she pinned me? She said, 'Every woman for herself,' and shrugged it off. Brie wanted it this way, every woman for herself, and she got it. So, don't you or anyone else dare come crying to me about what happened last night, because I don't regret it at all, and I'd do it again." With that, Nikki walked away, leaving Renee staring blankly after her.


	11. Chapter 11

_**Monday Night Raw May 25th 2015**_

Lillian Garcia stood in the middle of the ring, with a dazzling smile on her face. "The next contest is a triple threat match to determine the number one contender for the WWE Divas Championship. The winner of the match will face Sarita Lopez at Elimination Chamber."

Brie Bella was the first to enter the arena, to a warm reception. As she did so, the commentators once again discussed the betrayal that Brie had suffered at the hands of her sister, Nikki.

Next, May Devany entered, her music also being greeted was a cheer. "All three women in this match are fan favourites," Cole said. "And at this point I don't think many people would mind which of the three win the Divas title from Sarita Lopez, as long as one of them can do it."

"You might be right," Booker T said. "But I want to see Ronda Rousey get her hands on Sarita one on one. I really want to see that."

By this point, May had rolled into the ring, and she and Brie stood face to face, exchanging words. Without wasting time, May threw the first punch, and the referee called for the bell. "We're underway, guys. This should be a good one," Saxton said as the crowd cheered May on while she got the upper hand on Brie with right hands.

Brie began to fight back after kicking May in the stomach, but many of the fans now had their attention on someone who wasn't even in the match as yet. The crowd began to chant Ronda's name, and within moments the chant had grown incredibly loud. With perfect timing, Ronda's music hit and the crowd erupted.

"Here she comes," Cole yelled. "Ronda Rousey's not one hundred per cent, but she's cleared to compete following her knee injury, and she wants her Divas title back."

"I think you'll find the Divas title belongs to Sarita Lopez," Saxton pointed out.

Although they were both popular, neither Brie or May stood a chance of being cheered over Ronda, so when she slid under the bottom rope and started going to work on both opponents with punches, both lefts and rights, the crowd roared her on as loudly as they could.

Over the next fifteen minutes, all three Divas generated near falls on each other, but the match never really looked likely to end as the third woman was always in the ring to break up the pin attempt in time. However, when May clotheslined Ronda over the top rope and turned around, only to walk right into a running knee from Brie, which seemed to come from nowhere, a three count definitely did seem possible. Brie covered May as quickly as she could, hooking her leg.

"One."

"Two."

May kicked out, drawing a cheer from the crowd as Brie slammed her hand on the mat in frustration at the referee. The referee held up two fingers and gestured that May's shoulder was up, but Brie wasn't happy about the call. She got up and made a point of arguing with the referee again, not noticing when the noise from the crowd rose significantly. The reason for this was that Ronda had just gotten back into the ring, and was now standing poised to strike, glaring at Brie.

"Brie," Saxton warned. "Don't turn around. You're going to get..."

Brie did exactly what Byron was trying to warn her against, turning around right into a huge clothesline from Ronda. "Boom!" The crowd all yelled as Brie was flattened to the canvas, looking like she had been hit by a bus rather than another woman.

"That's got to be all," Cole said as Ronda made a cover. The crowd joined in with the count, considering it a formality.

"One."

"Two."

"Wait a minute!" Cole yelled as the referee was yanked out of the ring by his ankle. Sarita Lopez was revealed as the person responsible. "Damn it! Ronda Rousey had the match won and Sarita Lopez pulled the referee out of the ring! I can't believe this! This is bull..."

"Careful." Booker warned him.

The crowd booed angrily at Sarita, who stood there with an arrogant smile on her face as the referee yelled at her for what she had just done. She was clearly very pleased with her actions. But then, as she turned back to face the ring, the smile froze on her face. She had just seen that Ronda was up, and staring at her with a look of pure anger on her face.

"Uh, Sarita? You might want to run," Saxton advised. Sarita had the same idea, and ran for her life as Ronda sprinted across the ring and jumped through the ropes. The crowd cheered Ronda on as the two women ran up the entrance ramp, disappearing through the curtain.

In the ring, Brie was up, and rather stupidly, she had decided to stand near the ropes, watching Sarita and Ronda as they ran away. Seeing this as she got to her feet, May ran at Brie from behind and caught her with her signature flying kick to the back of the head.

"Oh! Mayday!" Booker yelled. Brie had collapsed into an awkward position, making May's Five Star Frog Splash finishing move difficult to hit from three corners of the ring, and seemingly too far from the other one.

"No way," Cole said as May pointed to the top rope in the most distant corner, bringing the crowd to their feet. "She can't. Not from there."

"She's going to try," Booker said as May ran over to the corner and jumped up onto the top rope.

After taking a moment to line herself up correctly, May launched herself a truly incredible height into the air and almost easily flew the large distance towards Brie as phone camera flashes went off throughout the arena, accompanying the collective gasp of awe from the crowd.

"Unbelievable!" Cole shouted as May hit the move and rolled around holding her stomach in pain. "Surely it's over, if May can capitalise?"

Still holding her stomach, May crawled over and covered Brie as best she could.

"One."

"Two."

"Three." The crowd cheered loudly.

"May Devany did it," Cole said. "May Devany will meet Sarita Lopez at Elimination Chamber."

All three commentators hyped up the match which was now in prospect as May celebrated her victory.

* * *

 ** _Earlier that night_**

There was a real battle going on inside Ronda's head as she sat in the locker room which she shared with Seth, and it was a battle that she was losing. The battle had been going on for a period of days, but had worsened significantly over the last ten minutes, since she had sat down to read over her copy of the script for the night's show. The objective of the battle was to stop herself from letting her frustrations get the better of her. Since her previous meltdown and the confrontation with Stephanie McMahon, Ronda had been determined not to let the same thing happen again. As she sat there, though, Ronda's mood only got worse and worse by the second, until she could not contain herself any more.

"I'm going to the bathroom," she said to Seth, who was reading over and memorising the lines that he needed to deliver in the show's opening segment. She knew that she had to lie to him about where she was going, or the other cause of her frustration and anxiety would get a lot worse, too.

"You okay?" Seth asked, looking up from his script. "You've been quiet."

"Stomach feels a bit strange," Ronda lied offhandedly as she headed for the door.

"Something you ate?" Seth asked, noticing that she still had her script in her hand. That fact caused him to strongly suspect he was being lied to.

"Don't know," Ronda mumbled as she opened the door and left the room.

When the door banged closed behind her, Seth narrowed his eyes slightly and flicked through the pages of his own script, looking for the details of Ronda's match. There was not much to read on the relevant page. It simply said that May was to win the triple threat match, and that Sarita Lopez was to come out to pull the referee out of the ring when it appeared that Ronda had the match won with a clothesline. Ronda would then chase Sarita to the back, leaving May to beat Brie. How this was to take place was not specified, and would therefore be left to May and Brie to work out between themselves.

"For fuck's sake," Seth groaned under his breath as he decided that he had figured out exactly what Ronda's problem was, and where she was really going.

* * *

Hunter and Stephanie were in the middle of a conversation with John Cena when a loud knock came on their office door. Ronda walked in, looking a lot less than happy.

"Can we pick this up later?" Hunter said to Cena, not really making it sound like a question.

"Sure," John said easily. "Ronda," he smiled as he made to leave.

"John," Ronda nodded slightly.

When John closed the door behind himself, Hunter gave Ronda a slight smile in greeting. "You've got the facial expressions for this business Ronda, especially that one. So, what are you pissed off about?"

"This," Ronda said heatedly, raising the script in the air. "I mean, is there some kind of joke that I'm not in on or something?"

"Calm down," Stephanie said gently, as if she might have been talking to one of her young daughters. "Remember what we talked about before. Let's talk about whatever you're worked up about, without anyone losing their temper. Okay?"

Ronda blustered on, "How can I stay calm? I mean, really? You're having May fucking Devany become the number one contender while I fuck around every week, pretending to have a bad knee? Just level with me, Hunter. You are taking me for an idiot, right?"

"That's enough," Hunter insisted, his own voice rising. "You're not going to come into my office ranting and swearing like that. I don't care who you are, or who you think you are."

"Honey?" Stephanie interjected. "How about you give me a few minutes and we'll get this taken care of? You catch up to John and finish going through that stuff with him."

"Fine," Hunter huffed, heading for the door. "You're really disappointing me, Ronda," he added as a parting shot as he opened the door.

"Sit down, Ronda," Stephanie instructed, rubbing her eyes in frustration. Ronda sat down on the office's small couch and Stephanie pulled a chair over to sit opposite her. "I thought we were getting past this king of thing?"

"So did I, until I read this crap," Ronda said sullenly, slapping the script down on the couch beside her. "I want to wrestle, Steph. I want to win matches. I don't want to play this stupid..."

"Calm down," Stephanie urged again. "Take a breath and calm down. You need to think of the bigger picture, Ronda. This is all leading to something, trust me. You're going to get your payoff. _We_ are all going to get the payoff. Do you honestly not think that this storyline is planned out a long way forward of this point?"

"I don't doubt that it's planned out. What I want to know is, is it planned out to continue to make me look stupid? I mean, running around after Sarita Lopez halfway through a number one contendership match? As if I would be that dumb."

As she watched the woman in front of her speaking, Stephanie could tell that there was more to Ronda's frustration than the creative for the match later on in the night. It was obvious to her. "You're going to like where we're going with this," she said pleasantly, and then paused for a moment. "This isn't the only problem you have though, is it?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ronda asked, guardedly.

"I can tell that you're frustrated about something else. Maybe this other thing is the real reason that you're here. You don't know how to ask for help, or who to ask, do you?" Stephanie knew that she had hit a bullseye when Ronda leaned forward and looked down at her own feet rather than looking her in the eye. "It's Seth, right?" Stephanie encouraged. "I mean, if it wasn't, I have to assume you would talk to him about whatever it was. I'm here to help, or just to listen, if that's what you want."

For a long moment a heavy silence hung in the room. "It's not working," Ronda mumbled eventually.

"Your relationship isn't working?" Stephanie asked delicately, even though she could tell perfectly well that this was what Ronda meant. She needed more information before she could offer any advice.

"We rushed into it. We rushed into it and I don't think he really loves me, now that he's getting to know me, I mean."

"Why do you say that?" Stephanie asked.

Ronda fiddled unnecessarily with her top, still avoiding looking at Stephanie. "I can just tell. He doesn't want to be with me. He wants to be with the person he thought I was when we met. I 've considered breaking it off with him, but I love him."

Stephanie felt for Ronda, but there was not much that she could do to help, other than steer Ronda in the direction that she had to go. "You need to talk to him, Ronda. It will be hard, but you need to do it. If he does feel the way that you think then yes, it will hurt, but you need to know. Not every relationship works out. You guys have only been together for a few months. We've all been in relationships with people that have gone that far and then we've realised that it's not working. That's life, sadly."

"What about you and Hunter?" Ronda asked, now looking at Stephanie, who could see the tears in her eyes. "You guys must have had it tough? In the beginning I mean."

"Tough?" Stephanie laughed once, humorlessly. "My dad forbade us from being together. We spent almost a year apart, even though we knew we loved each other and wanted to be together."

"Really?" Ronda asked, surprised. "You guys never gave up on it?"

Stephanie shook her head. "We knew that we loved each other. You need to figure out of you and Seth feel the same way, or if you need to accept that you're not the special people for each other, and let it be."

"Let it be?" Ronda whispered, feeling tears stinging her eyes again, thinking of the lyrics to one of her favourite songs by The Beatles. "There's a song..."

"I know," Stephanie said softly. "I was thinking of it when I said it."

Ronda wiped at her eyes. "I always thought that when Paul wrote that song, he was trying to tell their fans who listened to it when it was released that The Beatles were going to break up, and they should let it be."

"Maybe he was," Stephanie said. "Go and speak to Seth, Ronda. That's what you need to do. You know where I am if you need me. I'll straighten this out with Hunter, okay?"

"Thank you," Ronda said with an awkward attempt at a smile before standing and quickly walking out of the office, looking like she wanted to run.

Stephanie had been prepared to offer a hug, but she guessed that hugging wasn't Ronda's kind of thing. "Good luck," she said quietly to the closed door.

* * *

By the time Ronda had walked back to their locker room, she was almost looking forward to talking with Seth and clearing the air. She had done a good job of convincing herself that things would work themselves out. "Hey, sorry about before," she began as she walked through the door, but then stopped. The room was empty, not only of Seth, but of his belongings too.

A wave of sadness washed over Ronda as she sat down on the bench next to her things and picked up her phone. There was a text message from Seth.

 _I know you went to have another go at Hunter and Steph about the script. I can't keep supporting you with that childish bullshit. I need some space for few days. I think it will be best for both of us, so I've gone to change with Roman and Dean tonight. I'll call you in the week._

With something close to resignation, Ronda sighed, deleted the message and set her phone aside. There was a show to get ready for.


	12. Chapter 12

Working house shows was definitely one of the worst things about working for WWE, in Seth's opinion. Sure, the shows themselves were okay most of the time, but the constant travel and the endless hotel rooms were a real drag. What made it even worse was when Roman, Dean and Ronda were not on the same show as him. WWE would often put on two house shows on the same night, in different cities, and tonight was one of those nights.

Seth sighed as he drained his first beer and placed the glass down on the bar in front of him. Usually, he wasn't one to drink much, if it all, during the week, but tonight he had decided to get wrecked. It was Wednesday night, and he had a rare day off the next day. He had decided that he might as well spend that day off working on a hangover. He took out his phone as he ordered another beer.

A minute later, the bartender returned with Seth's beer and took the money that he had left on the bar to pay for it. Given that he was sitting there, staring blankly at his phone, Seth missed the curious look that the bartender gave him. Seth's thoughts were too preoccupied with whether or not to call Ronda, and if he did call her, what would he say? He felt like there was nowhere for their relationship to go from this point, and that it was over, but he just couldn't call Ronda and tell her that over the phone. That would be wrong on his part.

The truth of it was that he had fucked up Monday night, he knew that. He should have stayed in the locker room and told Ronda then that it was over, that he was done with her stupid ego and attitude. But no, he had gone to change with Roman and Dean instead. "Stupid," he mumbled to himself. "Just tell her. Just get it over with."

"Hey. Are you okay? You looked like you were miles away?" a voice greeted him from behind.

"Huh?" Seth asked in surprise, half turning to look at the new arrival, even though he had heard the question perfectly well in the relatively quiet bar. "My mom, just some family stuff," he lied on auto pilot as he set his phone aside on the bar.

"Can I sit?"

"Sure," Seth said, gesturing to the empty bar stool beside him. "Drink?" he asked as his new companion sat down.

"I'll take one of whatever that is you have."

Seth ordered the beer and it was quickly delivered.

"Thanks," she said. "So, you look pretty much like I feel."

"How's that?" Seth asked, working on his own beer, still not really tuned in to the conversation.

"Like you're thoroughly worn down by all the travel and the nights like this."

"You know that," Seth laughed, dryly. "Pissed off with travel, pissed off with hotels, pissed off with life, really."

Seth's drinking partner laughed. "That bad, huh? What is it, you and Ronda? There are rumors."

Seth shook his head, looking a little surprised, but really he was not. Backstage at WWE, somehow everyone knew almost everything about everyone else. It was pretty much a given that someone would have said something to someone else about finding out that he had changed in Roman and Dean's locker room Monday night, and then conclusions would be jumped to from there. Seth downed the rest of his beer in one hit and banged the glass down on the bar. "Yeah, it's over," he sighed, admitting the fact to himself as much as to the person beside him.

"I'm sorry to hear that, man, really. Hey, my shout this time. I'll get another round in."

"Make it a JD, a double," Seth said. "Beer's not cutting it."

* * *

"Oh, fuck," Seth groaned to himself when he dared to open his eyes a little, only to get bright sunlight directly in them. The curtains at the hotel room's windows were open. "Jesus. Fuck," he moaned again as he struggled to kick his way out from under the blanket to go and close the curtains. There were hangovers, then there were _serious_ hangovers, then there was feeling like this. This was something else entirely.

On his way across the room to the windows, Seth stepped on something, and doing so caused his ankle to turn to the side and nearly make him twist or sprain it. "Fucking hell!" he raged at the offending object as he angrily attempted to kick it across the room. "Fucking shit on the floor," he growled as the object hit the side of the bed and fell back to the carpet. By this point, Seth was already closing the curtains.

When he turned around, he was trying to decide if he should crawl back into bed and die there, or if he should head for the bathroom and throw up instead. That was when he noticed the object that he had just kicked. It was lying there on its side, on the carpet, and there was another one standing nearby. A woman's shoe.

Seth gulped and looked at the messy, empty bed, trying to remember who had been in there with him the previous night. Try as he might, he couldn't remember. But, what he did know was that it hadn't been Ronda, that much was blatantly obvious even with the ridiculous hangover clouding his mind. "Oh, shit," he groaned, drawing out both words. That was when he heard the toilet flush in the bathroom. He stood there like a rabbit caught in the headlights as he waited for whoever was going to come out of the bathroom to emerge, not because he was afraid to see or speak to whoever it was, but because the implications of what he had done were starting to dawn on him already.

The bathroom door opened, and a very familiar and attractive woman walked into the room. She was only wearing her underwear, and she looked about as bad as he felt. "Hey," she groaned, barely looking at him as she collapsed onto the bed, face down.

Seth rushed for the bathroom. There was no doubt about the fact that he was going to be sick now, not least because Roman's voice from Monday night was repeating itself in his head.

In the locker room, they had been talking about the argument that Roman had witnessed between Seth and Ronda at the hotel's pool earlier in the day. "I love you man, you know I do, but I also know how you get when you think things aren't going right in a relationship. I'll tell you now, if you hurt Ronda like you've hurt other girls in the past, I _will_ kick your ass. That girl means as much to me as you do, and I'm not going to stand for it, not with Ronda. Am I perfectly clear on that?"

"Come on man, you know I'm not going to do something like that again, not to Ronda," Seth had said, knowing full well that Roman was referring to cheating. Seth had also seen in Roman's eyes that he meant every single word he had said.

"He's right," Dean had added. "I told you when you got with Ronda not to fuck her around. Talk to her. We're not going to pick sides if the two of you decide to end it, or even if you just end it with her, but if you do end it? You better do it the right fucking way."

Seth was no stranger to cheating, and had in fact caused his previous three relationships to end for that reason. Roman and Dean had stood by him on those occasions because he was their brother by choice, and neither Roman or Dean had been close to any of the women who Seth had been with in the past. In fact, they had hardly known any of them. Even so, Roman had given Seth one hell of a reading of the riot act on the last such occasion. Now Roman considered Ronda to be his own sister, and Seth had cheated on her.

Crouching over the toilet, he heaved several times and emptied the contents of his stomach into the bowl. He groaned at how ill he felt as he stood up and flushed away the mess. That was when he caught sight of himself in the mirror. "You are so fucked," he told the piece of human wreckage that was the reflection. If the prospect of having to tell Ronda about this, and also having to tell her that their relationship was over, was not bad enough, there was also the fact that Roman was literally going to kick his ass, unless a minor miracle occurred. Added to that was the fact that this was going to kick up a shit storm at WWE too, especially considering who he had slept with. Seth could easily picture Stephanie and Hunter losing their shit with him, like they were ones to talk. It was no secret how their own relationship had gotten started.

Shuffling out of the bathroom, he decided that all of those things would have to be dealt with, but not right now. Right now, he was going back to bed.

* * *

Walking into the arena for Sunday's pay-per-view event was something that Seth had been thinking about all day Thursday, even while nursing his ridiculous hangover. Shit was going to go off big time, he knew that for sure. Ronda, Roman, Dean and the woman Seth had cheated with were all going to be there. Seth knew that there was no other option but to come clean to Ronda and admit what he had done. She would of course be furious and upset, and would then tell Roman and Dean about it too, who would also be livid with him. Added to all of that, Seth was worried about how WWE would react. It could easily blow up in his face big time. He had considered telling Hunter first, before Ronda, but had decided against it.

The final aspect of the total mess that was this situation was that he had told his latest lover that his relationship with Ronda was already over, and now she actually wanted to be with him. The chances of things remaining that way after Sunday were slim, but he had decided to admit to Ronda that he had lied to the woman he had slept with and said that it was already over. The blame was on him for this thing, and him alone. Ronda beating one of WWE's top Divas half to death was not something that Seth wanted to happen, or for him to be held responsible for, that was for sure.

The more Seth thought about what it was going to be like in the arena Sunday, the worse it got. By the time he returned to his hotel room Thursday night, after almost totally failing to eat the meal that he had bought for dinner, he could stand it no more. This was without doubt the biggest disaster that he had ever created for himself in his life. He found himself sitting in his hotel room, in silence, trying to decide what to do.

Eventually, he reached a decision. He knew that it would be a really terrible thing to do, but he figured that it just might take the edge off of the shit storm that was to come the next night. He was going to have to call Ronda and end it with her over the phone, in the process telling her what had happened the previous night. Ronda would be furious, and would think that he was the biggest prick on Earth, as would everyone else, but he figured that those things would happen anyway at this point.

Sitting on the edge of the hotel room's bed, he leaned over to the night stand and picked up his cell phone, deciding to just get the call to Ronda over with as soon as possible. Usually he would always use FaceTime when calling her, but not this time, which was obviously a contributing factor to the way that Ronda answered his call a few rings later, sounding angry to say the least.

"You're _really_ going to do this over the phone?" she demanded. "You're going to break up with me over the phone? Well, fine. If that's the kind of asshole you truly are, you know what? Go right ahead. What you did Monday night? Walking out of that locker room without even talking to me? That was a real dick move, Seth. Doing that, and now this, shows what kind of man you truly are. I'm right aren't I? Tell me I'm wrong if I'm wrong?"

"You're not wrong," Seth said quietly. "I've been thinking about this all day, and it has to be this way. We both know that it hasn't been working for us for a while. It's for the best for both of us that we break it off."

Ronda made some kind of combination of a sarcastic laugh and a snort. "That's it? That's what you have to say to me?"

"Uh, no," Seth said, closing his eyes as he bit the bullet. "I have something else to tell you, but I need to be totally honest, the blame is one hundred percent on me for this."

"Blame?" Ronda asked, sounding confused, but a moment later it clicked for her. "Oh, you bastard. You slept with someone didn't you?"

"Yes," Seth confessed. "Last night. I told her that it was over between us already, so like I said, this is all on me, not her."

"Oh, how fucking noble of you," Ronda growled. "You weasel piece of shit. Who was it?"

"Look, Ronda, you can't show up Sunday and..."

"Who fucking was it?" Ronda screamed, causing Seth to move the phone away from his ear momentarily. He hesitated for a moment. "Tell me, you bastard," Ronda growled.

"May Devany," Seth mumbled, and the line went dead. Seth sighed and tossed his phone aside, before allowing himself to fall backwards onto the bed. "Oh shit, now what?" he groaned.


	13. Chapter 13

Saturday had given Seth some much needed thinking time ahead of what was sure to be a bitch of a night backstage at Elimination Chamber. His relationship with Ronda was over. He was actually okay with that. They had been heading in that direction for a while, truth be told. But, by sleeping with May Devany before actually telling Ronda that it was over, Seth had created himself a world of issues. By Sunday morning, he had decided what to do about them in order to minimise the potential disaster as much as possible.

For that reason, Seth had decided that his first phone call would go to Hunter. As he had predicted, the boss had been a lot less than pleased to hear Seth's story, but Hunter had agreed to talk with Roman and Dean before Seth arrived in the building, to make sure that there would be no violence. Seth would have liked to have been able to tell himself that Roman wouldn't really kick his ass over what had happened, but he had already seen it in his brother's eyes when he had delivered the warning about cheating on Ronda. Seth also didn't doubt that Dean was going to come down on Ronda's side on this either. The truth of it was that cheating on Ronda had probably not only ended one relationship for him, but three. It really saddened him to have to admit it, but he _did_ have to admit it; much as his on screen character had done, his stupid actions had cost him the best thing that he'd had, his relationship with his brothers.

Hunter had also agreed to talk with Ronda, to ask her to keep this mess off social media and out of the public domain completely. This was not the kind of thing that WWE wanted effecting its public image, not at all. Seth knew that Ronda would agree when Hunter asked her, too. Although she was hot tempered and had a bad attitude a lot of the time, Ronda was very good at working people onto her side. Seth considered that this was possibly her best talent. She was so over with the fans that it was actually ridiculous, she was seemingly Roman's closest friend, even after only knowing him for a period of months, and she was also Hunter's golden girl. Ronda Rousey was untouchable at this point, which now made Seth public enemy number one.

Seth had also needed to call May Devany, who was possibly about to become public enemy number two, and through no fault of her own, either. She had been understandably furious with him on Thursday, when he had admitted that he had not been up front with her about the status of his relationship with Ronda. He had said that it was over, and May had naturally assumed that to mean that Seth had already said as much to Ronda, which was not the case. If there was one positive to the whole mess for him, it was that after he had managed to calm May down and convince her that he was serious when he said that he would take all of the flack that was going to come their way, and tell everyone who needed to be told that May had not been at fault, they'd had sex again, twice. May seemed to be a little lost on him, and he liked that. May was attractive in a very different way than Ronda was, but she was attractive nonetheless, and the sex was great.

When Seth had called May on Sunday morning, she had demanded to know if he was going to keep his word when they got to the arena that afternoon, and Seth had insisted that he would. He had said that he would speak to Ronda, if she would listen, and Roman and Dean, if they would listen, and explain exactly what had happened in the bar Wednesday night. Meanwhile, May was to make herself scarce and stay in the locker room that she shared with Sarita Lopez.

Now it was time for Seth to hope that everything would work out as best it could, because he had just left his rental car in the parking garage and was about to walk into the arena where Elimination Chamber was being held. It was an hour past the call time, but that was when Hunter had told him to arrive on this occasion, in order for Hunter and Stephanie to try and get on top of this thing before he arrived, and it all exploded.

Almost as soon as he walked into the building, Seth saw Big Show heading towards him in the opposite direction. What the big man had to say would more than likely let Seth know if word of what had happened with May was widespread knowledge already. "Hey, Show," Seth smiled as the two men approached each other.

"Hey, champ. Your girlfriend's waiting for you by your locker room."

Depending on who had said what, Big Show could have been referring to Ronda or May, but Seth could hardly ask which one. Instead he went with, "Where have they put me?"

"First left down here, first door on the left."

"Thanks, man," Seth said, heading off along the hallway once more. He hoped that it was May who was waiting for him to arrive, but if Big Show was referring to May as his girlfriend it meant that everyone already knew about what had happened, and that was not a good thing.

When he walked around the corner at the first opportunity to make a left turn, Seth saw that it wasn't May who was waiting for him. Ronda was standing next to his locker room door, leaning with her back against the wall. The fact that Big Show hadn't found anything strange about the fact that Ronda was waiting outside of what should have been her own locker room didn't really surprise Seth all that much. The big man wasn't in WWE for his brain power. "Hey, Ronda," Seth said reluctantly, anticipating a shouting match that he very much wanted to avoid. Ronda turned, saw him, and moved from her position against the wall to walk towards him. "Listen, let's go in my locker room..."

That was as far as Seth got. Caught totally off guard, he felt himself stumbling backwards, tripping over his own feet, and ending up sitting on his ass on the hallway floor. The right side of his face hurt, there was a loud ringing sound in his ears, and he could taste blood in his mouth. Raising his fingers instinctively to the source of the pain, he discovered that the right side of his top lip was split. What the hell had happened? Only then, after several more seconds, did his brain switch back on. Ronda had punched him, that was what had happened. She had punched him hard, and it had happened so fast that he had not even seen it coming. She was left handed, which explained why the right side of his face had taken the blow. "Fucking hell," he groaned, looking up at Ronda, who had already turned to march away, clearly having done what she had been waiting to do.

"You think I needed Roman to do that for me, you piece of shit?" he heard Ronda growl at him as she stormed away.

Being punched in the face was of course something that Seth had experienced before, but he was still stunned by it. He had expected Ronda to be mad at him, but not to actually go as far as punching him. He could feel blood trickling down his chin, so he wiped it away as best he could and got back to his feet. What he needed to do was go to the bathroom, clean himself up, and check out the damage in a mirror.

* * *

May Devany had no intention of hiding out in a locker room the whole night as Seth had suggested. Ronda Rousey had a reason to be pissed off with Seth, but not with her, in her opinion. In any event, May was not afraid of Ronda. In general, May was a kind and placid woman who actually disliked violence greatly, but she knew plenty of self defence techniques and also had some martial arts training. There was no way that she would actively look for a physical, or even verbal, confrontation with Ronda, but if Ronda came at her, May was prepared to defend herself.

Having just been dismissed from Hunter and Stephanie's office after Stephanie had given her the lecture on making sure that nothing about what had happened should be allowed to leak onto social media, May headed off to find Seth. She was hardly pleased with how he had handled what had happened Wednesday night, but she was certainly not going to crucify the guy for it, as everyone else seemed more than ready to do. There was something about Seth that drove May wild, and she had been jealous of Ronda for being with him, which was why she had approached him after hearing rumors of a breakup between the two.

As she walked along a hallway in the direction of Seth's locker room, May saw Ronda turn the corner at the end of the hallway in front of her and start marching in her direction, with a pissed off expression on her face. "I don't want to get into it wth you, Ronda," May said, stopping walking and raising one hand a little defensively. "He told me it was over between you, I swear."

Despite herself, May felt intimidated when Ronda stopped right in front of her, glaring down at her. Ronda was seven inches taller than May, and much bigger built too. "You don't want to get into it with me?" Ronda snarled.

"No, I don't," May said, impressed with how calm she kept her voice. "I specifically asked him about your relationship, and he told me it was over. He didn't tell me until the next day that he hadn't actually told you that yet. I get why you're mad, but I _did_ ask him, and I don't want to get into it with you. I _will_ defend myself if you try and touch me," she added, wanting to make it clear that she was prepared to stand up for herself if it came to that.

There was a tense silence between the two women for several seconds before Ronda responded. "I actually believe you," she said with a shrug, surprising May. "You know what? You're welcome to the bastard, if you want him. Give it a few months and you'll be in my position. Once a cheat, always a cheat."

Ronda stood aside to allow May to walk past her, which she did. May found herself wanting to run along the hallway, not totally trusting Ronda not to come at her from behind, but it didn't happen. As May turned the corner at the end of the hallway, she saw Seth walking towards her, and she saw blood on his face and on his right hand, which he was holding against the right side of his mouth. "Oh God, what happened?" May asked, rushing towards Seth.

"Ronda punched me," Seth mumbled, without removing his hand from his mouth. "My lip's split."

"Punched you?" May gasped. "We've got to tell Hunter or Steph about this. Let's get it looked at first, though. Let's go find the doctor's office. In fact, forget Hunter and Steph, you need to file assault charges."

"Assault charges?" Seth mumbled as the continued down the hallway. "Don't be stupid. I'm going to the bathroom to clean this up, and when I'm done we'll say no more about it. I'm not going running to Hunter and Steph. It's over with Ronda and I. I hurt her, she got her own back. It's done. It's not like anything would get done against the golden girl anyway, is it?"

May was disgusted and furious with what Ronda had done, but she decided not to push the point until they got to the bathroom and she could at least see the damage that the punch had caused to Seth. It took them a couple minutes to get to the bathrooms, and although Seth headed into the men's room, May followed him inside. As they walked in, they saw Dean Ambrose relieving himself at one of the urinals.

"Before you start, don't," Seth sighed as he removed his hand from his mouth, fearing another confrontation.

Dean half turned as he was still in the process of relieving himself. "Ronda did that?" he asked, his tone conveying no real emotion.

"Yeah," Seth said as walked over to the sinks with May following behind him.

"Saves Rome doing it, I suppose," Dean said. "He's ready to take your fucking head off."

Seth closed his eyes and sighed, hearing his fears confirmed. His relationship with Roman was a thing of the past. "What about you?" he asked quietly.

Dean had finished at the urinal, and zipped his jeans closed before turning around to look at Seth. For a moment Dean seamed to hesitate, as if unsure what to say. "We did tell you, man. What did you think would happen? " he said eventually, before adding, "You're even walking around the place with her." With that and a gesture at May, Dean turned and walked out of the bathroom without washing his hands. Seth guessed that Dean had been eager just to get out of there.

While the brief and awkward exchange had been taking place between the two men, May had walked into one of the cubicles and fetched a large amount of toilet paper. "Let me look," she said, standing next to Seth as he leaned over the sink, dripping blood into it. Seth lifted his head and turned slightly towards May so that she could see the damage to his lip a little better.

May was relieved to see that the split wasn't as bad as the amount of blood he was losing made it seem. "It's not too bad, thankfully," she said as she ran a small amount of water onto a handful of the toilet paper. "Press that on there," she said, handing over the damp paper to Seth. "You really should file assault charges on Ronda. Just because she's a woman doesn't mean she can go around punching people. It's just as bad as if you had punched her."

"I'm not going to the cops," Seth groaned. "Just leave it. It's done, finished with. The violence is finished, Ronda and I are finished. Just leave it."

"Then go to Hunter or Steph," May persisted. "Don't just let her get away with punching you. It's about time she stopped getting away with everything just because she's Ronda fucking Rousey, and she's the golden girl. I'm sick of it."

"May, leave it," Seth insisted, more firmly this time. "I'm not going to anyone with this, and that's final. I just want to get on with the show and then get out of here. If you want to come with me afterwards, then great, but please stop going on about this. I'm done with Ronda, and apparently I'm done with Roman and Dean, too, which isn't what I want. But it's my own fault at the end of the day. They did tell me they would be pissed if I cheated on Ronda, and that's what I went and did. I'm a fucking idiot."

"Well, I'll come with you after the show," May smiled sweetly, admitting defeat on getting Seth to take action against Ronda, but glad that he still wanted to be with her despite the drama that their night together had caused.

"Just the two of us from here on out then," Seth said, wishing that he was able to smile as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to him in the best hug he could manage with one arm.

"Sounds good to me," May said softly, nestling herself closely to him.

* * *

 _ **Elimination Chamber 2015**_

Following the first match of the night, Renee Young appeared on the big screen. "Please welcome, May Devany." The crowd cheered as the shot panned out to reveal the diminutive Diva standing beside Renee. "May, you have another shot at becoming the WWE Divas champion tonight. How do you feel about your chances?"

"Well, Renee, we all know that it's going to be tough out there because we all know that no one faces Sarita Lopez one on one, regardless of what it says on the card. I can't recall her having a match that her two little lapdogs didn't interfere in. Realistically, what's going to happen is that it's going to be three on one..."

Right on cue, May was cut off by the loud crack of a steel chair against her back. Renee screamed and ran away as May collapsed to the floor in pain. The crowd booed loudly when Sarita Lopez was revealed as the person responsible for the attack. "You want me one on one?" Sarita yelled at May. "Here I am! It's just you and me, May!"

Sarita cracked the chair over May's back again as she lay prone on the concrete floor. "Come on May!" she yelled again. "One on one, right?"

Next, Sarita placed May's ankle into the chair. "I'll show you what I can do one on one!" She stamped on the chair, crushing May's ankle in it in the process. May screamed in pain and rolled around on the floor, holding her ankle.

"There's your one on one," Sarita spat, before walking calmly away.

* * *

When it was time for the Divas title match, Sarita Lopez sauntered to the ring with Anna and Alex beside her as usual. "Here comes Sarita Lopez," Cole began. "We're set for the Divas title match, but is it even going to happen? We've had no update on the condition of May Devany since we saw Sarita attack her backstage earlier tonight, and May appeared to sustain an ankle injury."

"May wanted Sarita one on one," Saxton countered. "Sometimes in life you need to be careful what you wish for."

"What's going to happen if May can't compete?" Lawler asked, but no one answered as Sarita was now in the ring and had snatched Lillian Garcia's microphone.

"Get your ass out of here," Sarita barked at Lillian. "You're not going to be needed. Go on, beat it." The crowd booed as Lillian reluctantly left the ring. Sarita turned to face the crowd. "Right, I'm sure even you morons know how this works. May Devany, you got ten seconds to get out here and face me like a real woman, otherwise you forfeit. Referee, start counting."

"This is embarrassing," Cole mumbled as the referee started his ten count. Anna and Alex dutifully joined in, standing either side of Sarita.

It appeared that yet another Divas title defense was going to end in a farce, but when the count reached eight Stephanie McMahon's music hit, drawing a cheer from the crowd. "Not so fast, Sarita," Lawler said as Stephanie walked out onto the stage, not attempting to hide the satisfaction in his voice. Stephanie was holding something in her left hand, but it was hard to make out what it was as her hand was down by her side.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Stephanie began, "I regret to inform you that May Devany will not be able to compete for the Divas title here tonight." The crowd booed the announcement and Sarita was shown looking pleased with herself, but then a strange smile appeared on Stephanie's face. "However, if you look inside the program that many of you have purchased tonight, you will find some small print on the front page."

Stephanie raised her left hand, revealing that she was holding a copy of the program herself. She opened it to the first page. "Right there, at the bottom," she helped out the fans. "You see that, right? Card subject to change."

"Uh oh," Lawler mumbled, as a muted cheer rose from the crowd. Sarita was shown with a slightly worried look on her face.

"With that in mind," Stephanie continued, "I have managed to find a replacement for May Devany, at the last minute." With that Stephanie moved slightly over to one side of the stage to make way for Sarita's new challenger. "Ronda Rousey!" Stephanie announced proudly, and the arena exploded as Ronda's entrance video played, along with her new entrance theme, Radioactive by Imagine Dragons. Ronda appeared on the stage, marching quickly towards the ring.

"Oh my God!" Cole screamed. "Ronda Rousey! Look at the look in Ronda Rousey's eyes!"

"Sarita, you better think of something fast," Saxton yelped.

Sarita was already way ahead of him. Her plan was to demand that Anna and Alex stand between her and Ronda, as some kind of defensive wall. Ronda rolled into the ring and came face to face with Sarita's unenthusiastic bodyguards, with the crowd still going wild.

"Get 'em, Ronda," Lawler encouraged.

Anna and Alex glanced at each other, and Anna shook her head. Then the crowd cheered loudly as they both stepped aside, giving Ronda free access to Sarita. Alex made a dismissive hand gesture towards Sarita, and she and her partner both dropped out of the ring on opposite sides.

"Oh no," Saxton mumbled. "Sarita, you're in big trouble now."

Ronda had not moved towards Sarita, but she was still staring at the champion as though she was about to murder her. Sarita gulped and held her hands up defensively as she tried to attempt to plead her way out of the situation that she found herself in. Then the referee rang the bell. Although Ronda was not crowding Sarita, the champion started complaining to the referee that it wasn't fair to start the match without Ronda backing off to her own corner first.

"Back off, Ronda," the referee could be heard ordering the challenger. "Let's get this started, huh?"

Sarita took the opportunity that she had created for herself to run at Ronda from behind the referee, who was blocking Ronda's view of her, trying to gain herself an advantage in any way she could. Unfortunately for Sarita, her plan backfired, as when she launched herself at Ronda, Ronda simply caught her and used a judo throw to take her down to the mat. Ronda rolled with Sarita as she went down, and within a couple of seconds Ronda had Sarita's arm stretched out in an armbar.

"Oh! Ronda's got the arm!" Cole yelled. "Armbar!"

"Don't tap out!" Saxton yelled, but it was already too late. Sarita pounded the mat furiously with her free hand and the crowd erupted. Just like that the match was over.

Ronda's new music hit again. Letting go of Sarita, she ran to the nearest corner of the ring, jumping up to the middle rope and roaring like a wild animal in celebration as Cole yelled, "Ronda Rousey! Ronda Rousey is the Divas champion!"

"Sarita Lopez stood no chance without her backup," Lawler laughed as Ronda ran across the ring to the opposite corner and repeated the same celebratory gesture.

Saxton was noticeably quiet as Ronda returned to the middle of the ring to be presented with her title belt. She looked at it proudly before holding it aloft with her left hand. With her right hand she gestured to the crowd that they had all won the title together. "We win and lose together!" she shouted loudly over her music.

Cole said, "You hear the music, welcome the new age, everyone. Welcome to the age of Ronda Rousey."

END


	14. Chapter 14 - Epilogue

_**EPILOGUE**_

With her Divas title belt over her left shoulder, Ronda walked through the curtain into the Gorilla position. The huge adrenaline rush that the combination of winning the title and hearing the reaction of the fans to her victory had given her was still in effect, so when Hunter and Stephanie approached her to offer their congratulations, Ronda surprised Hunter by not only accepting his handshake, but also grabbing him into a hug too.

"Congratulations, Ronda. You deserve it. I told you that you were going to be our star. Didn't I tell you that?" Hunter said excitedly, thrilled by the reaction that Ronda's match had just gotten from the fans, knowing without even checking that she would be the top trend in the world on Twitter right now.

"Yeah, you told me," Ronda said, releasing the hug. "You told me and then we made it happen. That crowd was wild."

"Right," Hunter agreed, smiling. "You keep your head down, and it will only get better from here. Do you understand me?"

"Yeah," Ronda responded simply.

Next, Stephanie walked over to Ronda and offered a congratulatory handshake, which Ronda accepted, this time without adding a hug. "Well done, Ronda. I told you there would be a payoff to this. Hopefully you know that you can trust us and the creative process now?"

"Thanks Steph," Ronda smiled. "I feel great. I'll try and keep a level head from now on." With that, she headed off towards Roman and Dean's locker room, knowing that they would be dressed for their upcoming match, and keen to celebrate with her.

"Well, that went well," Stephanie said to Hunter once Ronda was out of earshot, referring to the match.

"Of course it did," Hunter grinned back at his wife. "What did I tell you when I put her on the main roster? Ronda equals money. She's got that 'it factor' that can't be taught. Some people just have it, and she has it. All we've got to do is keep her feet on the ground and her head in the game, and she's a licence for us to print money."

"That 'all' we have to do?" Stephanie asked skeptically, picking the word out of her husband's sentence.

Hunter took his wife's hand and they headed off towards their office. "Trust me, I've got this," he said confidently. "Ronda Rousey is going to be one of the faces of WWE for a long time to come."

Half an hour later, Ronda sat alone in Roman and Dean's locker room. The two men had just made their way to Gorilla for their upcoming match. Now that her adrenaline rush had worn off, she found herself feeling something very surprising to her. She felt uncomfortable, unhappy almost. She looked at the Divas title belt which sat on the bench beside her, with a blank expression on her face. She was asking herself if this was what she really wanted. Was the popularity what she really wanted? Was being the Divas champion what she really wanted? Were those things worth the price that she had paid to get them? Sure, Seth was a bastard for cheating on her, but would the cheating have happened if she had managed to keep her ego and her attitude in check? No, she had to to admit to herself that she didn't believe it would. At least partially, she was responsible for the failure of the relationship.

For several minutes, Ronda sat there looking at the Divas title belt. She was unable to stop herself thinking that although she was the champion, and although she was more over with the fans than she could ever have possibly imagined, she was not definitely not happy. She was more than halfway through her one year contract with WWE, which had not been extended as of yet.

"Maybe this isn't really what I want to do?" she mumbled to herself. "Sure, the popularity thing is awesome, but maybe I don't have to sign a new contract with WWE?"

That was definitely something worth thinking about.

* * *

 _The next story in this series is titled My Fight. You can find a link to it in the bio section of my profile page, along with a list of the other stories in the series._


End file.
